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Privacy Statement
Microsoft Privacy Statement – Microsoft privacy
Microsoft Privacy Statement
Last Updated: November 2024
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Microsoft Privacy Statement
Your privacy is important to us. This privacy statement explains the personal data
Microsoft processes, how Microsoft processes it, and for what purposes.
Personal data we collect
Microsoft offers a wide range of products, including server products used to help
How we use personal data
Reasons we share personal data
How to access and control your personal data
Cookies and similar technologies
Products provided by your organization—notice to end users
Microsoft account
Please read the product-specific details in this privacy statement, which provide
additional relevant information. This statement applies to the interactions Microsoft has
with you and the Microsoft products listed below, as well as other Microsoft products
that display this statement.
Young people may prefer starting with the Privacy for young people page. That page
highlights information that may be helpful for young people.
Collection of data from children
For individuals in the United States, please refer to our and the Consumer Health Data
Privacy Policy for additional information about the processing of your personal data,
and your rights under applicable U.S. state data privacy laws.
Other important privacy information
operate enterprises worldwide, devices you use in your home, software that students
use at school, and services developers use to create and host what’s next. References to
Microsoft products in this statement include Microsoft services, websites, apps,
software, servers, and devices.
Product-specific details:
Artificial Intelligence and Microsoft Copilot capabilities
Entertainment and related services
Windows
Productivity and communications products
Search and browse
Personal data we collect
Enterprise and developer products
Cookies
Most Microsoft sites use cookies, small text files placed on your device which web servers utilize in
the domain that placed the cookie can retrieve later. We use cookies to store your preferences and
settings, help with sign-in, provide personalized ads, and analyze site operations. For more
information, see the Cookies and similar technologies section of this privacy statement.
EU-U.S., UK Extension, and Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Frameworks
Microsoft complies with the EU-U.S., UK Extension to the EU-U.S., and Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy
Frameworks. To learn more, see the Where we store and process personal data section, and visit the
U.S. Department of Commerce’s Data Privacy Framework website.
Contact us
If you have a privacy concern, complaint, or question for the Microsoft Chief Privacy Officer or EU
Data Protection Officer, please contact us by using our web form. For more information about
contacting Microsoft, including Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited, see the How to contact
us section of this privacy statement.
Microsoft collects data from you, through our interactions with you and through our
products for a variety of purposes described below, including to operate effectively and
provide you with the best experiences with our products. You provide some of this data
directly, such as when you create a Microsoft account, administer your organization’s
licensing account, submit a search query to Bing, register for a Microsoft event, upload
a document to OneDrive, sign up for Microsoft 365, or contact us for support. We get
some of it by collecting data about your interactions, use, and experience with our
products and communications. In addition, we receive data from Microsoft affiliates,
subsidiaries, and third parties.
We rely on a variety of legal reasons and permissions (sometimes called “legal bases”)
to process data, including with your consent, a balancing of legitimate interests,
necessity to enter into and perform contracts, and compliance with legal obligations,
for a variety of purposes described below.
We also obtain data from third parties. We protect data obtained from third parties
according to the practices described in this statement, plus any additional restrictions
imposed by the source of the data. These third-party sources vary over time and
include:
Data brokers from which we purchase demographic data to supplement the data
we collect.
Services that make user-generated content from their service available to others,
such as local business reviews or public social media posts.
Communication services, including email providers and social networks, when you
give us permission to access your data on such third-party services or networks.
Service providers that help us determine your device’s location.
Partners with which we offer co-branded services or engage in joint marketing
activities.
Developers who create experiences through or for Microsoft products.
Third parties that deliver experiences through Microsoft products.
Publicly-available sources, such as open public sector, academic, and commercial
data sets and other data sources.
If you represent an organization, such as a business or school, that utilizes Enterprise
and Developer Products from Microsoft, please see the Enterprise and developer
products section of this privacy statement to learn how we process your data. If you are
an end user of a Microsoft product or a Microsoft account provided by your
organization, please see the Products provided by your organization and the Microsoft
account sections for more information.
You have choices when it comes to the technology you use and the data you share.
When you are asked to provide personal data, you can decline. Many of our products
require some personal data to operate and provide you with a service. If you choose
not to provide data required to operate and provide you with a product or feature, you
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cannot use that product or feature. Likewise, where we need to collect personal data by
law or to enter into or carry out a contract with you, and you do not provide the data,
we will not be able to enter into the contract; or if this relates to an existing product
you’re using, we may have to suspend or cancel it. We will notify you if this is the case
at the time. Where providing the data is optional, and you choose not to share personal
data, features like personalization that use the data will not work for you.
The data we collect depends on the context of your interactions with Microsoft and
the choices you make (including your privacy settings), the products and features
you use, your location, and applicable law.
The data we collect can include the following:
Name and contact data. Your first and last name, email address, postal address, phone
number, and other similar contact data.
Credentials. Passwords, password hints, and similar security information used for
authentication and account access.
Demographic data. Data about you such as your age, gender, country, and preferred
language.
Payment data. Data to process payments, such as your payment instrument number
(such as a credit card number) and the security code associated with your payment
instrument.
Subscription and licensing data. Information about your subscriptions, licenses, and
other entitlements.
Interactions. Data about your use of Microsoft products. In some cases, such as search
queries, this is data you provide in order to make use of the products. In other cases,
such as error reports, this is data we generate. Other examples of interactions data
include:
Device and usage data. Data about your device and the product and features
you use, including information about your hardware and software, how our
products perform, as well as your settings. For example:
Payment and account history. Data about the items you purchase and
activities associated with your account.
Browse history. Data about the webpages you visit.
Device, connectivity, and configuration data. Data about your device,
your device configuration, and nearby networks. For example, data about
the operating systems and other software installed on your device, including
product keys. In addition, IP address, device identifiers (such as the IMEI
number for phones), regional and language settings, and information about
WLAN access points near your device.
Error reports and performance data. Data about the performance of the
products and any problems you experience, including error reports. Error
reports (sometimes called “crash dumps”) can include details of the software
or hardware related to an error, contents of files opened when an error
occurred, and data about other software on your device.
Troubleshooting and help data. Data you provide when you contact
Microsoft for help, such as the products you use, and other details that help
us provide support. For example, contact or authentication data, the content
of your chats and other communications with Microsoft, data about the
condition of your device, and the products you use related to your help
inquiry. When you contact us, such as for customer support, phone
conversations or chat sessions with our representatives may be monitored
and recorded.
Bot usage data. Interactions with bots and skills available through
Microsoft products, including bots and skills provided by third parties.
Interests and favorites. Data about your interests and favorites, such as the
sports teams you follow, the programming languages you prefer, the stocks you
track, or cities you add to track things like weather or traffic. In addition to those
you explicitly provide, your interests and favorites can also be inferred or derived
from other data we collect, such as your interactions on websites where our
technology is used to show or measure ads.
Content consumption data. Information about media content (e.g., TV, video,
music, audio, text books, apps, and games) you access through our products.
Searches and commands. Search queries and commands when you use
Microsoft products with search or related productivity functionality, such as
interactions with a chat bot.
Voice data. Your voice data, sometimes referred to as “voice clips”, such as search
queries, commands, or dictation you speak, which may include background
sounds.
Text, inking, and typing data. Text, inking, and typing data and related
information. For example, when we collect inking data, we collect information
about the placement of your inking instrument on your device.
Images. Images and related information, such as picture metadata. For example,
we collect the image you provide when you use a Bing image-enabled service.
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Contacts and relationships. Data about your contacts and relationships if you
use a product to share information with others, manage contacts, communicate
with others, or improve your productivity.
Social data. Information about your relationships and interactions between you,
other people, and organizations, such as types of engagement (e.g., likes, dislikes,
events, etc.) related to people and organizations.
Location data. Data about your device’s location, which can be either precise or
imprecise. For example, we collect location data using Global Navigation Satellite
System (GNSS) (e.g., GPS) and data about nearby cell towers and Wi-Fi hotspots.
Location can also be inferred from a device’s IP address or data in your account
profile that indicates where it is located with less precision, such as at a city or
postal code level.
Other input. Other inputs provided when you use our products. For example,
data such as the buttons you press on an Xbox wireless controller using the Xbox
network, skeletal tracking data when you use Kinect, and other sensor data, like
the number of steps you take, when you use devices that have applicable sensors.
If you attend an in-store event, we collect the data you provide to us when
registering for or during the event and if you enter into a prize promotion, we
collect the data you input into the entry form.
Content. Content of your files and communications you input, upload, receive, create,
and control. For example, if you transmit a file using Skype to another Skype user, we
need to collect the content of that file to display it to you and the other user. If you
receive an email using Outlook.com, we need to collect the content of that email to
deliver it to your inbox, display it to you, enable you to reply to it, and store it for you
until you choose to delete it. Other content we collect when providing products to you
include:
Communications, including audio, video, text (typed, inked, dictated, or
otherwise), in a message, email, call, meeting request, or chat.
Photos, images, songs, movies, software, and other media or documents you
store, retrieve, or otherwise process with our cloud.
Video or recordings. Recordings of events and activities at Microsoft buildings, retail
spaces, and other locations. If you enter Microsoft Store locations or other facilities, or
attend a Microsoft event that is recorded, we may process your image and voice data.
Feedback and ratings. Information you provide to us and the content of messages you
send to us, such as feedback, survey data, and product reviews you write.
Traffic data. Data generated through your use of Microsoft’s communications services.
Traffic data indicates with whom you have communicated and when your
communications occurred. We will process your traffic data only as required to provide,
maintain, and improve our communications services and we do so with your consent.
Product-specific sections below describe data collection practices applicable to use of
those products.
How we use personal data
Microsoft uses the data we collect to provide you rich, interactive experiences. In
particular, we use data to:
Provide our products, which includes updating, securing, and troubleshooting, as
well as providing support. It also includes sharing data, when it is required to
provide the service or carry out the transactions you request.
Improve and develop our products.
Personalize our products and make recommendations.
Advertise and market to you, which includes sending promotional
communications, targeting advertising, and presenting you relevant offers.
We also use the data to operate our business, which includes analyzing our
performance, meeting our legal obligations, developing our workforce, and doing
research.
For these purposes, we combine data we collect from different contexts (for example,
from your use of two Microsoft products). For example, Microsoft Store uses
information about the apps and services you use to make personalized app
recommendations. However, we have built in technological and procedural safeguards
designed to prevent certain data combinations where required by law. For example,
where required by law, we store data we collect from you when you are
unauthenticated (not signed in) separately from any account information that directly
identifies you, such as your name, email address, or phone number.
Our processing of personal data for these purposes includes both automated and
manual (human) methods of processing. Our automated methods often are related to
and supported by our manual methods. For example, to build, train, and improve the
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accuracy of our automated methods of processing (including artificial intelligence or
AI), we manually review some of the output produced by the automated methods
against the underlying data.
As part of our efforts to improve and develop our products, we may use your data to
develop and train our AI models. Learn more here.
Purposes and legal bases for processing
When we process personal data about you, we do so with your consent and/or as
required to provide the products you use, operate our business, meet our contractual
and legal obligations, protect the security and safety of our systems and our customers,
or fulfill other legitimate interests of Microsoft or third parties as described in this
section and in the section of this privacy statement. Our bases for processing your
personal data may vary depending on how and across what products and services we
process your data.
When we process personal data based on our or a third party’s legitimate interests, we
consider and balance those interests against your rights and freedoms, and we will only
process your personal data where the legitimate interests we have in processing are not
outweighed by your interests.
When we transfer personal data from the European Economic Area, we do so based on
a variety of legal mechanisms, as described in the section of this privacy statement.
More on the purposes of processing:
Provide our products. We use data to operate our products and provide you
with rich, interactive experiences. For example, if you use OneDrive, we process
the documents you upload to OneDrive to enable you to retrieve, delete, edit,
forward, or otherwise process it, at your direction as part of the service. Or, for
example, if you enter a search query in the Bing search engine, we use that query
to display search results to you. Additionally, as communications are a feature of
various products, programs, and activities, we use data to contact you. For
example, we may contact you by phone or email or other means to inform you
when a subscription is ending or discuss your licensing account. We also
communicate with you to secure our products, for example by letting you know
when product updates are available.
Product improvement. We use data to continually improve our products,
including adding new features or capabilities. For example, we use error reports to
improve security features, search queries and clicks in Bing to improve the
relevancy of the search results, usage data to determine what new features to
prioritize, and voice data to develop and improve speech recognition accuracy.
Personalization. Many products include personalized features, such as
recommendations that enhance your productivity and enjoyment. These features
use automated processes to tailor your product experiences based on the data we
have about you, such as inferences we make about you and your use of the
product, activities, interests, and location. For example, depending on your
settings, if you stream movies in a browser on your Windows device, you may see
a recommendation for an app from the Microsoft Store that streams more
efficiently. If you have a Microsoft account, with your permission, we can sync
your settings on several devices. Many of our products provide controls to disable
personalized features.
Product activation. We use data—such as device and application type, location,
and unique device, application, network, and subscription identifiers—to activate
products that require activation.
Product development. We use data to develop new products. For example, we
use data, often de-identified, to better understand our customers’ computing and
productivity needs, and to train and fine-tune AI models, which can shape the
development of new products.
Customer support. We use data to troubleshoot and diagnose product
problems, repair customers’ devices, and provide other customer care and
support services, including to help us provide, improve, and secure the quality of
our products, services, and training, and to investigate security incidents. Call
recording data may also be used to authenticate or identify you based on your
voice to enable Microsoft to provide support services and investigate security
incidents.
Help secure and troubleshoot. We use data to help secure and troubleshoot our
products. This includes using data to protect the security and safety of our
products and customers, detecting malware and malicious activities,
troubleshooting performance and compatibility issues to help customers get the
most out of their experiences, and notifying customers of updates to our
products. This may include using automated systems to detect security and safety
issues.
Safety. We use data to protect the safety of our products and our customers. Our
security features and products can disrupt the operation of malicious software
and notify users if malicious software is found on their devices. For example, some
of our products, such as Outlook.com or OneDrive, systematically scan content in
an automated manner to identify suspected spam, viruses, abusive actions, or
URLs that have been flagged as fraud, phishing, or malware links; and we reserve
the right to block delivery of a communication or remove content if it violates our
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terms. In accordance with European Union Regulation (EU) 2021/1232, we
have invoked the derogation permitted by that Regulation from Articles 5(1)
and 6(1) of EU Directive 2002/58/EC. We use scanning technologies to create
digital signatures (known as “hashes”) of certain images and video content
on our systems. These technologies then compare the hashes they generate
with hashes of reported child sexual exploitation and abuse imagery (known
as a “hash set”), in a process called “hash matching”. Microsoft obtains hash
sets from organizations that act in the public interest against child sex
abuse. This can result in sharing information with the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and law enforcement authorities.
Updates. We use data we collect to develop product updates and security
patches. For example, we may use information about your device’s capabilities,
such as available memory, to provide you a software update or security patch.
Updates and patches are intended to maximize your experience with our
products, help you protect the privacy and security of your data, provide new
features, and evaluate whether your device is ready to process such updates.
Promotional communications. We use data we collect to deliver promotional
communications. You can sign up for email subscriptions and choose whether you
wish to receive promotional communications from Microsoft by email, SMS,
physical mail, and telephone. For information about managing your contact data,
email subscriptions, and promotional communications, see the How to access and
control your personal data section of this privacy statement.
Relevant offers. Microsoft uses data to provide you with relevant and valuable
information regarding our products. We analyze data from a variety of sources to
predict the information that will be most interesting and relevant to you and
deliver such information to you in a variety of ways. For example, we may predict
your interest in gaming and communicate with you about new games you may
like.
Advertising. Microsoft does not use what you say in email, human-to-human
chat, video calls, or voice mail, or your documents, photos, or other personal files
to target ads to you. We use data we collect through our interactions with you,
through some of our first-party products, services, apps, and web properties
(Microsoft properties), and on third-party web properties, for advertising on our
Microsoft properties and on third-party properties. We may use automated
processes to help make advertising more relevant to you. For more information
about how your data is used for advertising, see the Advertising section of this
privacy statement.
Prize promotions and events. We use your data to administer prize promotions
and events available in our physical Microsoft Stores. For example, if you enter
into a prize promotion, we may use your data to select a winner and provide the
prize to you if you win. Or, if you register for a coding workshop or gaming event,
we will add your name to the list of expected attendees.
Transacting commerce. We use data to carry out your transactions with us. For
example, we process payment information to provide customers with product
subscriptions and use contact information to deliver goods purchased from the
Microsoft Store.
Reporting and business operations. We use data to analyze our operations and
perform business intelligence. This enables us to make informed decisions and
report on the performance of our business.
Protecting rights and property. We use data to detect and prevent fraud,
resolve disputes, enforce agreements, and protect our property. For example, we
use data to confirm the validity of software licenses to reduce piracy. We may use
automated processes to detect and prevent activities that violate our rights and
the rights of others, such as fraud.
Legal compliance. We process data to comply with applicable laws. For example,
we use the age of our customers to assist us in meeting our obligations to protect
children’s privacy. We also process contact information and credentials to help
customers exercise their data protection rights.
Research. With appropriate technical and organizational measures to safeguard
individuals’ rights and freedoms, we use data to conduct research, including
advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities for the benefit of
the public interest and scientific purposes.
Reasons we share personal data
We share your personal data with your consent or as necessary to complete any
transaction or provide any product you have requested or authorized. For example, we
share your content with third parties when you tell us to do so, such as when you send
an email to a friend, share photos and documents on OneDrive, or link accounts with
another service. If you use a Microsoft product provided by an organization you are
affiliated with, such as an employer or school, or use an email address provided by such
organization to access Microsoft products, we share certain data, such as interaction
data and diagnostic data to enable your organization to manage the products. When
you provide payment data to make a purchase, we will share payment data with banks
and other entities that process payment transactions or provide other financial services,
and for fraud prevention and credit risk reduction. Additionally, when you save a
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payment method (such as a card) to your account that you and other Microsoft account
holders use to make purchases from Microsoft or its affiliates, your purchase receipts
may be shared with anyone else who uses and has access to the same payment method
to make a purchase from Microsoft, including the payment method’s named
accountholder. When you permit push notifications for Microsoft products or
applications on a non-Windows device, the operating system of that device will process
some personal data to provide push notifications. Accordingly, Microsoft may send
data to an external, third-party notification provider to deliver push notifications. Your
device’s push notification services are governed by their own service-specific terms and
privacy statements.
We also share personal data for digital advertising purposes. When you visit a website
or use an app that wants to show you ads, the digital property may allow Microsoft to
access or receive device data or certain other data identified in the Personal data we
collect section above. We may then share this information with third party advertising
platforms and advertisers to facilitate the delivery and measurement of ads on such
digital properties. Please see the Advertising and U.S. State Data Privacy sections below
for more information about how your data is used for advertising.
In addition, we share personal data among Microsoft-controlled affiliates and
subsidiaries. We also share personal data with vendors or agents working on our behalf
for the purposes described in this statement. For example, companies we've hired to
provide customer service support or assist in protecting and securing our systems and
services may need access to personal data to provide those functions. In such cases,
these companies must abide by our data privacy and security requirements and are not
allowed to use personal data they receive from us for any other purpose. We may also
disclose personal data as part of a corporate transaction such as a merger or sale of
assets.
Finally, we will retain, access, transfer, disclose, and preserve personal data, including
your content (such as the content of your emails in Outlook.com, or files in private
folders on OneDrive), when we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary to do
any of the following:
Comply with applicable law or respond to valid legal process, including from law
enforcement or other government agencies.
Protect the safety of our customers, organizations, and the public — for example,
to prevent spam or attempts to defraud or otherwise cause harm, or to detect,
prevent, and combat harmful or illegal behavior including the creation and
sharing of harmful or illegal content.
Operate and maintain the security of our products, including to prevent or stop
an attack on our computer systems or networks.
Protect the rights or property of Microsoft, including enforcing the terms
governing the use of the services—however, if we receive information indicating
that someone is using our services to traffic in stolen intellectual or physical
property of Microsoft, we will not inspect a customer's private content ourselves,
but we may refer the matter to law enforcement.
For more information about data we disclose in response to requests from law
enforcement and other government agencies, please see our Law Enforcement
Requests Report.
Please note that some of our products include links to or otherwise enable you to
access products of third parties whose privacy practices differ from those of Microsoft.
If you provide personal data to any of those products, your data is governed by their
privacy policies.
How to access and control your personal data
You can also make choices about the collection and use of your data by Microsoft. You
can control your personal data that Microsoft has obtained, and exercise your data
protection rights, by contacting Microsoft or using various tools we provide. In some
cases, your ability to access or control your personal data will be limited, as required or
permitted by applicable law. How you can access or control your personal data will also
depend on which products you use. For example, you can:
Control the use of your data for personalized advertising from Microsoft by
visiting our opt-out page.
Choose whether you wish to receive promotional emails, SMS messages,
telephone calls, and postal mail from Microsoft.
Access and clear some of your data through the Microsoft privacy dashboard.
Not all personal data processed by Microsoft can be accessed or controlled via the
tools above. If you want to access or control personal data processed by Microsoft that
is not available via the tools above or directly through the Microsoft products you use,
you can always contact Microsoft at the address in the How to contact us section or by
using our web form.
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We provide aggregate metrics about user requests to exercise their data protection
rights via the Microsoft Privacy Report.
You can access and control your personal data that Microsoft has obtained with tools
Microsoft provides to you, which are described below, or by contacting Microsoft. For
instance:
If Microsoft obtained your consent to use your personal data, you can withdraw
that consent at any time.
You can request access to, erasure of, and updates to your personal data.
If you’d like to port your data elsewhere, you can use tools Microsoft provides to
do so, or if none are available, you can contact Microsoft for assistance.
You can also object to or restrict the use of your personal data by Microsoft. For
example, you can object at any time to our use of your personal data:
For direct marketing purposes.
Where we are performing a task in the public interest or pursuing our legitimate
interests or those of a third party.
You may have these rights under applicable laws, including the EU General Data
Protection Regulation (GDPR), but we offer them regardless of your location. In some
cases, your ability to access or control your personal data will be limited, as required or
permitted by applicable law.
If your organization, such as your employer, school, or service provider, provides you
with access to and is administering your use of Microsoft products, contact your
organization to learn more about how to access and control your personal data.
You can access and control your personal data that Microsoft has obtained, and
exercise your data protection rights, using various tools we provide. The tools most
useful to you will depend on our interactions with you and your use of our products.
Here is a general list of tools we provide to help you control your personal data; specific
products may provide additional controls.
Bing. If you are signed into Bing, you can view and clear your stored search and
chat history on your privacy dashboard. If you are not signed into Bing, you can
view and clear stored search history associated to your device in your Bing
settings.
Microsoft account. If you wish to access, edit, or remove the profile information
and payment information in your Microsoft account, change your password, add
security information or close your account, you can do so by visiting the Microsoft
account website.
If you have a Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) public profile, you can
access and edit your data by signing in at MSDN forum.
Microsoft privacy dashboard. You can control some of the data Microsoft
processes through your use of a Microsoft account on the Microsoft privacy
dashboard. From here, for example, you can view and clear the browsing, search,
and location data associated with your Microsoft account.
Microsoft Store. You can access your Microsoft Store profile and account
information by visiting Microsoft Store and selecting View account or Order
history.
Microsoft Teams for personal use. You can find out how to export or delete
Teams data relating to your personal Microsoft account by visiting this page.
OneDrive. You can view, download, and delete your files and photos in OneDrive
by signing into your OneDrive.
Outlook.com. You can download your emails in Outlook.com by signing into
your account and navigating to your Privacy and data settings.
Skype. If you wish to access, edit, or remove some profile and payment
information for Skype or change your password, sign in to your account. If you
wish to export your Skype chat history and files shared on Skype, you can request
a copy.
Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC). If you are a Volume Licensing
customer, you can control your contact information and subscription and
licensing data in one location by visiting the Volume Licensing Service Center
website.
Xbox. If you use the Xbox network or Xbox.com, you can view or edit your
personal data, including billing and account information, privacy settings, and
online safety and data sharing preferences by accessing My Xbox on the Xbox
console or on the Xbox.com website.
Not all personal data processed by Microsoft can be accessed or controlled via the
tools above. If you want to access or control personal data processed by Microsoft that
is not available via the tools above or directly through the Microsoft products you use,
you can always contact Microsoft at the address in the How to contact us section or by
using our web form. We will respond to requests to control your personal data as
required by applicable law.
Your communications preferences
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You can choose whether you wish to receive promotional communications from
Microsoft by email, SMS, physical mail, and telephone. If you receive promotional email
or SMS messages from us and would like to opt out, you can do so by following the
directions in that message. You can also make choices about the receipt of promotional
email, telephone calls, and postal mail by signing in with your personal Microsoft
account, and viewing your communication permissions where you can update contact
information, manage Microsoft-wide contact preferences, opt out of email
subscriptions, and choose whether to share your contact information with Microsoft
partners. If you do not have a personal Microsoft account, you can manage your
Microsoft email contact preferences by using this web form. These choices do not apply
to mandatory service communications that are part of certain Microsoft products,
programs, activities, or to surveys or other informational communications that have
their own unsubscribe method.
Your advertising choices
To opt out of receiving personalized advertising from Microsoft, including Xandr, visit
our opt-out page. When you opt out, your preference is stored in a cookie that is
specific to the web browser you are using. The opt-out cookie has an expiration date of
five years. If you delete the cookies on your device, you need to opt out again.
You can also link your opt-out choice with your personal Microsoft account. It will then
apply on any device where you use that account and will continue to apply until
someone signs in with a different personal Microsoft account on that device. If you
delete the cookies on your device, you will need to sign in again for the settings to
apply. You can view our third party ad partners on the U.S. State Data Privacy Laws
Notice, and opt-out of data sharing with third parties at our opt-out page.
For Microsoft-controlled advertising that appears in apps on Windows, you may use the
opt-out linked to your personal Microsoft account, or opt out of interest-based
advertising by turning off the advertising ID in Windows settings.
Because the data used for interest-based advertising is also used for other required
purposes (including providing our products, analytics, and fraud detection), opting out
of interest-based advertising does not stop that data collection. You will continue to get
ads, although they may be less relevant to you.
You can opt out of receiving interest-based advertising from third parties we partner
with by visiting their sites (see above).
Browser-based controls
When you use a browser, you can control your personal data using certain features. For
example:
Cookie controls. You can control the data stored by cookies and withdraw
consent to cookies by using the browser-based cookie controls described in
the Cookies section of this privacy statement.
Tracking protections. You can control the data third-party sites can collect about
you using Tracking Protection in Internet Explorer (versions 9 and up) and
Microsoft Edge. This feature will block third-party content, including cookies, from
any site that is listed in a Tracking Protection List you add.
Browser controls for "Do Not Track." Some browsers have incorporated "Do
Not Track" (DNT) features that can send a signal to the websites you visit
indicating you do not wish to be tracked. Because there is not yet a common
understanding of how to interpret the DNT signal, Microsoft services do not
currently respond to browser DNT signals. We continue to work with the online
industry to define a common understanding of how to treat DNT signals. In the
meantime, you can use the range of other tools we provide to control data
collection and use, including the ability to opt out of receiving interest-based
advertising from Microsoft as described above.
Cookies and similar technologies
Cookies are small text files placed on your device to store data that can be recalled by a
web server in the domain that placed the cookie. This data often consists of a string of
numbers and letters that uniquely identifies your computer, but it can contain other
information as well. Some cookies are placed by third parties acting on our behalf. We
use cookies and similar technologies to store and honor your preferences and settings,
enable you to sign-in, provide interest-based advertising, combat fraud, analyze how
our products perform, and fulfill other legitimate purposes described below. Microsoft
apps use additional identifiers, such as the advertising ID in Windows, for similar
purposes, and many of our websites and applications also contain web beacons or
other similar technologies, as described below.
Our use of cookies and similar technologies
Microsoft uses cookies and similar technologies for several purposes, depending on the
context or product, including:
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Storing your preferences and settings. We use cookies to store your
preferences and settings on your device, and to enhance your experiences. For
example, depending on your settings, if you enter your city or postal code to get
local news or weather information on a Microsoft website, we store that data in a
cookie so that you will see the relevant local information when you return to the
site. Saving your preferences with cookies, such as your preferred language,
prevents you from having to set your preferences repeatedly. If you opt out of
interest-based advertising, we store your opt-out preference in a cookie on your
device. Similarly, in scenarios where we obtain your consent to place cookies on
your device, we store your choice in a cookie.
Sign-in and authentication. We use cookies to authenticate you. When you sign
in to a website using your personal Microsoft account, we store a unique ID
number, and the time you signed in, in an encrypted cookie on your device. This
cookie allows you to move from page to page within the site without having to
sign in again on each page. You can also save your sign-in information so you do
not have to sign in each time you return to the site.
Security. We use cookies to process information that helps us secure our
products, as well as detect fraud and abuse.
Storing information you provide to a website. We use cookies to remember
information you shared. When you provide information to Microsoft, such as
when you add products to a shopping cart on Microsoft websites, we store the
data in a cookie for the purpose of remembering the information.
Social media. Some of our websites include social media cookies, including those
that enable users who are signed in to the social media service to share content
via that service.
Feedback. Microsoft uses cookies to enable you to provide feedback on a
website.
Interest-based advertising. Microsoft uses cookies to collect data about your
online activity and identify your interests so that we can provide advertising that
is most relevant to you. You can opt out of receiving interest-based advertising
from Microsoft as described in the How to access and control your personal
data section of this privacy statement.
Showing advertising. Microsoft uses cookies to record how many visitors have
clicked on an advertisement and to record which advertisements you have seen,
for example, so you do not see the same one repeatedly.
Analytics. We use first- and third-party cookies and other identifiers to gather
usage and performance data. For example, we use cookies to count the number
of unique visitors to a web page or service and to develop other statistics about
the operations of our products.
Performance. Microsoft uses cookies to understand and improve how our
products perform. For example, we use cookies to gather data that helps with
load balancing; this helps us keep our websites remain up and running.
Where required, we obtain your consent prior to placing or using optional cookies that
are not (i) strictly necessary to provide the website; or (ii) for the purpose of facilitating
a communication. Please see the “How to Control Cookies” section below for more
information.
Some of the cookies we commonly use are listed below. This list is not exhaustive, but it
is intended to illustrate the primary purposes for which we typically set cookies. If you
visit one of our websites, the site will set some or all of the following cookies:
MSCC. Contains user choices for most Microsoft properties.
MUID, MC1, MSFPC, and MSPTC. Identifies unique web browsers visiting
Microsoft sites. These cookies are used for advertising, site analytics, and other
operational purposes.
ANON. Contains the ANID, a unique identifier derived from your Microsoft
account, which is used for advertising, personalization, and operational purposes.
It is also used to preserve your choice to opt out of interest-based advertising
from Microsoft if you have chosen to associate the opt-out with your Microsoft
account.
CC. Contains a country code as determined from your IP address.
PPAuth, MSPAuth, MSNRPSAuth, KievRPSAuth, WLSSC, MSPProf. Helps to
authenticate you when you sign in with your Microsoft account.
MC0. Detects whether cookies are enabled in the browser.
MS0. Identifies a specific session.
NAP. Contains an encrypted version of your country, postal code, age, gender,
language and occupation, if known, based on your Microsoft account profile.
MH. Appears on co-branded sites where Microsoft is partnering with an
advertiser. This cookie identifies the advertiser, so the right ad is selected.
childinfo, kcdob, kcrelid, kcru, pcfm. Contains information that Microsoft
account uses within its pages in relation to child accounts.
MR. This cookie is used by Microsoft to reset or refresh the MUID cookie.
x-ms-gateway-slice. Identifies a gateway for load balancing.
TOptOut. Records your decision not to receive interest-based advertising
delivered by Microsoft. Where required, we place this cookie by default and
remove it when you consent to interest-based advertising.
ApplicationGatewayAffinity and ApplicationGatewayAffinityCORS. These
session cookies are used for load balancing purposes and to ensure requests for a
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user session are handled by the same server.
We may also use the cookies of other Microsoft affiliates, companies, and partners, such
as LinkedIn and Xandr.
Third Party Cookies
In addition to the cookies Microsoft sets when you visit our websites, we also use
cookies from third parties to enhance the services on our sites. Some third parties can
also set cookies when you visit Microsoft sites. For example:
Companies we hire to provide services on our behalf, such as site analytics, place
cookies when you visit our sites.
Companies that deliver content on Microsoft sites, such as videos or news, or ads,
place cookies on their own.
These companies use the data they process in accordance with their privacy policies,
which may enable these companies to collect and combine information about your
activities across websites, apps, or online services.
The following types of third-party cookies may be used, depending on the context,
service or product, as well as your settings and permissions:
Social Media cookies. We and third parties use social media cookies to show you
ads and content based on your social media profiles and activity on our websites.
They’re used to connect your activity on our websites to your social media profiles
so the ads and content you see on our websites and on social media will better
reflect your interests.
Analytics cookies.We allow third parties to use analytics cookies to understand
how you use our websites so we can make them better and the third parties can
develop and improve their products, which they may use on websites that are not
owned or operated by Microsoft. For example, analytics cookies are used to
gather information about the pages you visit and how many clicks you need to
accomplish a task. These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes.
Advertising cookies.We and third parties use advertising cookies to show you
new ads by recording which ads you've already seen. They're also used to track
which ads you click on or purchases you make after clicking on an ad for payment
purposes, and to show you ads that are more relevant to you. For example,
they're used to detect when you click on an ad and show you ads based on your
social media interests and website browsing history.
Required cookies.We use required cookies to perform essential website
functions. For example, to log you in, save your language preferences, provide a
shopping cart experience, improve performance, route traffic between web
servers, detect the size of your screen, determine page load times, and measure
audiences. These cookies are necessary for our websites to work.
Where required, we obtain your consent prior to placing or using optional cookies that
are not (i) strictly necessary to provide the website; or (ii) for the purpose of facilitating
a communication.
For a list of the third parties that set cookies on our websites, including service
providers acting on our behalf, please visit our third party cookie inventory. The third
party cookie inventory also includes links to those third parties’ websites or privacy
notices. Please consult the third party websites or privacy notices for more information
on their privacy practices with respect to their cookies that may be set on our websites.
On some of our websites, a list of third parties is available directly on the site. The third
parties on these sites may not be included in the list on our third party cookie
inventory.
How to control cookies
Most web browsers automatically accept cookies but provide controls that allow you to
block or delete them. For example, in Microsoft Edge, you can block or delete cookies
by selecting Settings > Privacy and services > Clear Browsing data > Cookies and
other site data. For more information about how to delete your cookies in Microsoft
browsers, see Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Edge Legacy, or Internet Explorer. If you use a
different browser, refer to that browser’s instructions.
As mentioned above, where required, we obtain your consent before placing or using
optional cookies that are not (i) strictly necessary to provide the website; or (ii) for the
purpose of facilitating a communication. We separate these optional cookies by
purpose, such as for advertising and social media purposes. You may consent to certain
categories of optional cookies and not others. You also may adjust your choices by
clicking “Manage cookies” in the footer of the website or through the settings made
available on the website. Certain features of Microsoft products depend on cookies. If
you choose to block cookies, you cannot sign in or use some of those features, and
preferences that are dependent on cookies will be lost. If you choose to delete cookies,
any settings and preferences controlled by those cookies, including advertising
preferences, are deleted and will need to be recreated.
Additional privacy controls that can impact cookies, including the tracking protections
feature of Microsoft browsers, are described in the How to access and control your
personal data section of this privacy statement.
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Our use of web beacons and analytics services
Some Microsoft webpages contain electronic tags known as web beacons that we use
to help deliver cookies on our websites, count users who have visited those websites,
and deliver co-branded products. We also include web beacons or similar technologies
in our electronic communications to determine whether you open and act on them.
In addition to placing web beacons on our own websites, we sometimes work with
other companies to place our web beacons on their websites or in their advertisements.
This helps us to, for example, develop statistics on how often clicking on an
advertisement on a Microsoft website results in a purchase or other action on the
advertiser's website. It also allows us to understand your activity on the website of a
Microsoft partner in connection with your use of a Microsoft product or service.
Finally, Microsoft products often contain web beacons or similar technologies from
third-party analytics providers, which help us compile aggregated statistics about the
effectiveness of our promotional campaigns or other operations. These technologies
enable the analytics providers to set or read their own cookies or other identifiers on
your device, through which they can collect information about your online activities
across applications, websites, or other products. However, we prohibit these analytics
providers from using web beacons on our sites to collect or access information that
directly identifies you (such as your name or email address). You can opt out of data
collection or use by some of these analytics providers by visiting any of the following
sites: Adjust, AppsFlyer, Clicktale, Flurry Analytics, Google Analytics (requires you to
install a browser add-on), Kissmetrics, Mixpanel, Nielsen, Acuity Ads, WebTrends,
or Optimizely.
Other similar technologies
In addition to standard cookies and web beacons, our products can also use other
similar technologies to store and read data files on your computer. This is typically
done to maintain your preferences or to improve speed and performance by storing
certain files locally. But, like standard cookies, these technologies can also store a
unique identifier for your computer, which can then track behavior. These technologies
include Local Shared Objects (or "Flash cookies") and Silverlight Application Storage.
Local Shared Objects or "Flash cookies." Websites that use Adobe Flash technologies
can use Local Shared Objects or "Flash cookies" to store data on your computer. To
learn how to manage or block Flash cookies, go to the Flash Player help page.
Silverlight Application Storage. Websites or applications that use Microsoft Silverlight
technology also have the ability to store data by using Silverlight Application Storage.
To learn how to manage or block such storage, see the Silverlight section of this privacy
statement.
Products provided by your organization—notice to end users
If you use a Microsoft product with an account provided by an organization you are
affiliated with, such as your work or school account, that organization can:
Control and administer your Microsoft product and product account, including
controlling privacy-related settings of the product or product account.
Access and process your data, including the interaction data, diagnostic data, and
the contents of your communications and files associated with your Microsoft
product and product accounts.
If you lose access to your work or school account (in event of change of employment,
for example), you may lose access to products and the content associated with those
products, including those you acquired on your own behalf, if you used your work or
school account to sign in to such products.
Many Microsoft products are intended for use by organizations, such as schools and
businesses. Please see the Enterprise and developer products section of this privacy
statement. If your organization provides you with access to Microsoft products, your
use of the Microsoft products is subject to your organization's policies, if any. You
should direct your privacy inquiries, including any requests to exercise your data
protection rights, to your organization’s administrator. When you use social features in
Microsoft products, other users in your network may see some of your activity. To learn
more about the social features and other functionality, please review documentation or
help content specific to the Microsoft product. Microsoft is not responsible for the
privacy or security practices of our customers, which may differ from those set forth in
this privacy statement.
When you use a Microsoft product provided by your organization, Microsoft’s
processing of your personal data in connection with that product is governed by a
contract between Microsoft and your organization. Microsoft processes your personal
data to provide the product to your organization and you, and in some cases for
Microsoft’s business operations related to providing the product as described in
the Enterprise and developer products section. As mentioned above, if you have
questions about Microsoft’s processing of your personal data in connection with
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providing products to your organization, please contact your organization. If you have
questions about Microsoft’s business operations in connection with providing products
to your organization as provided in the Product Terms, please contact Microsoft as
described in the How to contact us section. For more information on our business
operations, please see the Enterprise and developer products section.
For Microsoft products provided by your K-12 school, including Microsoft 365
Education, Microsoft will:
not collect or use student personal data beyond that needed for authorized
educational or school purposes;
not sell or rent student personal data;
not use or share student personal data for advertising or similar commercial
purposes, such as behavioral targeting of advertisements to students;
not build a personal profile of a student, other than for supporting authorized
educational or school purposes or as authorized by the parent, guardian, or
student of appropriate age; and
require that our vendors with whom student personal data is shared to deliver the
educational service, if any, are obligated to implement these same commitments
for student personal data.
Microsoft account
With a Microsoft account, you can sign into Microsoft products, as well as those of
select Microsoft partners. Personal data associated with your Microsoft account
includes credentials, name and contact data, payment data, device and usage data, your
contacts, information about your activities, and your interests and favorites. Signing
into your Microsoft account enables personalization, consistent experiences across
products and devices, permits you to use cloud data storage, allows you to make
payments using payment instruments stored in your Microsoft account, and enables
other features. There are three types of Microsoft account:
When you create your own Microsoft account tied to your personal email address,
we refer to that account as a personal Microsoft account.
When you or your organization (such as an employer or your school) create your
Microsoft account tied to your email address provided by that organization, we
refer to that account as a work or school account.
When you or your service provider (such as a cable or internet service provider)
create your Microsoft account tied to your email address with your service
provider’s domain, we refer to that account as a third-party account.
Personal Microsoft accounts. The data associated with your personal Microsoft
account, and how that data is used, depends on how you use the account.
Creating your Microsoft account. When you create a personal Microsoft
account, you will be asked to provide certain personal data and we will assign a
unique ID number to identify your account and associated information. While
some products, such as those involving payment, require a real name, you can
sign in to and use other Microsoft products without providing your real name.
Some data you provide, such as your display name, email address, and phone
number, can be used to help others find and connect with you within Microsoft
products. For example, people who know your display name, email address, or
phone number can use it to search for you on Skype or Microsoft Teams for
personal use and send you an invite to connect with them. Note that if you use a
work or school email address to create a personal Microsoft account, your
employer or school may gain access to your data. In some cases, you will need to
change the email address to a personal email address in order to continue
accessing consumer-oriented products (such as the Xbox network).
Signing in to Microsoft account. When you sign in to your Microsoft account,
we create a record of your sign-in, which includes the date and time, information
about the product you signed in to, your sign-in name, the unique number
assigned to your account, a unique identifier assigned to your device, your IP
address, and your operating system and browser version.
Signing in to Microsoft products. Signing in to your account enables improved
personalization, provides seamless and consistent experiences across products
and devices, permits you to access and use cloud data storage, allows you to
make payments using payment instruments stored in your Microsoft account, and
enables other enhanced features and settings. For example, when you sign in,
Microsoft makes information saved to your account available across Microsoft
products so important things are right where you need them. When you sign in to
your account, you will stay signed in until you sign out. If you add your Microsoft
account to a Windows device (version 8 or higher), Windows will automatically
sign you in to products that use Microsoft account when you access those
products on that device. When you are signed in, some products will display your
name or username and your profile photo (if you have added one to your profile)
as part of your use of Microsoft products, including in your communications,
social interactions, and public posts. Learn more about your Microsoft account,
your data, and your choices.
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Signing in to third-party products. If you sign in to a third-party product with
your Microsoft account, you will share data with the third party in accordance with
the third party’s privacy policy. The third party will also receive the version
number assigned to your account (a new version number is assigned each time
you change your sign-in data); and information that describes whether your
account has been deactivated. If you share your profile data, the third party can
display your name or user name and your profile photo (if you have added one to
your profile) when you are signed in to that third-party product. If you chose to
make payments to third-party merchants using your Microsoft account, Microsoft
will pass information stored in your Microsoft account to the third party or its
vendors (e.g., payment processors) as necessary to process your payment and
fulfill your order (such as name, credit card number, billing and shipping
addresses, and relevant contact information). The third party can use or share the
data it receives when you sign in or make a purchase according to its own
practices and policies. You should carefully review the privacy statement for
each product you sign in to and each merchant you purchase from to
determine how it will use the data it collects.
Work or school accounts. The data associated with a work or school account, and how
it will be used, is generally similar to the use and collection of data associated with a
personal Microsoft account.
If your employer or school uses Microsoft Entra ID to manage the account it provides
you, you can use your work or school account to sign in to Microsoft products, such as
Microsoft 365 and Office 365, and third-party products provided to you by your
organization. If required by your organization, you will also be asked to provide a
phone number or an alternative email address for additional security verification. And, if
allowed by your organization, you may also use your work or school account to sign in
to Microsoft or third-party products that you acquire for yourself.
If you sign in to Microsoft products with a work or school account, note:
The owner of the domain associated with your email address may control and
administer your account, and access and process your data, including the
contents of your communications and files, including data stored in products
provided to you by your organization, and products you acquire by yourself.
Your use of the products is subject to your organization’s policies, if any. You
should consider both your organization’s policies and whether you are
comfortable enabling your organization to access your data before you choose to
use your work or school account to sign in to products you acquire for yourself.
If you lose access to your work or school account (if you change employers, for
example), you may lose access to products, including content associated with
those products, you acquired on your own behalf if you used your work or school
account to sign in to such products.
Microsoft is not responsible for the privacy or security practices of your
organization, which may differ from those of Microsoft.
If your organization is administering your use of Microsoft products, please direct
your privacy inquiries, including any requests to exercise your data subject rights,
to your administrator. See also the Notice to end users section of this privacy
statement.
If you are uncertain whether your account is a work or school account, please
contact your organization.
Third-party accounts. The data associated with a third-party Microsoft account, and
how it will be used, is generally similar to the use and collection of data associated with
a personal Microsoft account. Your service provider has control over your account,
including the ability to access or delete your account. You should carefully review the
terms the third party provided you to understand what it can do with your
account.
Collection of data from children
For users under the age of 13 or as specified by law in their jurisdiction, certain
Microsoft products and services will either block users under that age or will ask them
to obtain consent or authorization from a parent or guardian before they can use it,
including when creating an account to access Microsoft services. We will not knowingly
ask children under that age to provide more data than is required to provide for the
product.
Once parental consent or authorization is granted, the child's account is treated much
like any other account. The child can access communication services, like Outlook and
Skype, and can freely communicate and share data with other users of all ages. Learn
more about parental consent and Microsoft child accounts.
Parents or guardians can change or revoke the consent choices previously made. As the
organizer of a Microsoft family group, the parent or guardian can manage their child’s
information and settings on their Family Safety page and view and delete a child’s data
on their privacy dashboard. Accounts that require parental consent to be created are
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automatically included as part of the family group of the individual who provided the
consent for account creation. For child accounts that do not require parental consent to
be created (e.g., for children who are over the age at which parental consent is legally
required), the parent or guardian may still use a family group, but must add the child
account to their family group after the account is created. See below for more
information about how to access and delete child data.
Below is additional information about the collection of data from children, including
more details as related to Xbox.
Accessing and deleting child data. For Microsoft products and services that require
parental consent, a parent can view and delete certain data belonging to their child
from the parent’s privacy dashboard: browsing history, search history, location activity,
media activity, apps and service activity, and product and service performance data. To
delete this data, a parent can sign in to their privacy dashboard and manage their
child’s activities. Please note that a parent’s ability to access and/or delete a child’s
personal information on their privacy dashboard will vary depending on the laws where
you are located.
Additionally, a parent can contact our privacy support team through the privacy
support form and, following authentication, request that the data types on the privacy
dashboard together with the following data be deleted: software, setup, and inventory;
device connectivity and configuration; feedback and ratings; fitness and activity;
support content; support interactions; and environmental sensor. We process
authenticated deletion requests within 30 days of receipt.
Please note that content like emails, contacts, and chats are accessible through inproduct experiences. You can find more information about data you are able to control
within Microsoft products by visiting our Privacy Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).
If your child’s account is not a part of your Microsoft family group and you do not have
access to your child’s activity on your privacy dashboard, then you need to submit a
request related to your child’s data through the privacy support form. The privacy team
will ask for account verification before fulfilling the request.
To delete all of your child’s personal information, you must request deletion of the
child’s account through the close your account form. This link will prompt you to sign in
with your child’s account credentials. Check that the page shows the correct Microsoft
account, and then follow the instructions to request that your child’s account be
deleted. Learn more about how to close a Microsoft account.
After you submit the request to close your child’s account, we will wait 60 days before
permanently deleting the account in case you change your mind or need to access
something on the account before it is permanently closed and deleted. During the
waiting period, the account is marked for closure and permanent deletion, but it still
exists. If you want to reopen your child’s Microsoft account, just sign in again within
that 60-day period. We will cancel the account closure, and the account will be
reinstated.
What is Xbox? Xbox is the gaming and entertainment division of Microsoft. Xbox hosts
an online network that consists of software and enables online experiences crossing
multiple platforms. This network lets your child find and play games, view content, and
connect with friends on Xbox and other gaming and social networks.
When users sign in to Xbox, in apps, games or on an Xbox console, we assign a unique
identifier to their device. For instance, when their Xbox console is connected to the
internet and they sign in to the console, we identify which console and which version of
the console’s operating system they are using.
Xbox continues to provide new experiences in client apps that are connected to and
backed by services such as Xbox network and cloud gaming. When signed in to an
Xbox experience, we collect required data to help keep these experiences safe, secure,
up to date, and performing as expected.
Data we collect when you create an Xbox profile. You as the parent or guardian are
required to consent to the collection of personal data from a child under 13 years old
or as otherwise specified by your jurisdiction. With your permission, your child can have
an Xbox profile and use the online Xbox network. During the child Xbox profile
creation, you will sign in with your own Microsoft account to verify that you are an adult
organizer in your Microsoft family group. We collect an alternate email address or
phone number to boost account security. If your child needs help accessing their
account, they will be able to use one of these alternates to validate they own the
Microsoft account.
We collect limited information about children, including name, birthdate, email address,
and region. When you sign your child up for an Xbox profile, they get a gamertag (a
public nickname) and a unique identifier. When you create your child’s Xbox profile you
consent to Microsoft collecting, using, and sharing information based on their privacy
and communication settings on the Xbox online network. Your child’s privacy and
communication settings are defaulted to the most restrictive.
Data we collect. We collect information about your child’s use of Xbox services, games,
apps, and devices including:
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When they sign in and sign out of Xbox, purchase history, and content they
obtain.
Which games they play and apps they use, their game progress, achievements,
play time per game, and other play statistics.
Performance data about Xbox consoles, Xbox Game Pass and other Xbox apps,
the Xbox network, connected accessories, and network connection, including any
software or hardware errors.
Content they add, upload, or share through the Xbox network, including text,
pictures, and video they capture in games and apps.
Social activity, including chat data and interactions with other gamers, and
connections they make (friends they add and people who follow them) on the
Xbox network.
If your child uses an Xbox console or Xbox app on another device capable of accessing
the Xbox network, and that device includes a storage device (hard drive or memory
unit), usage data will be stored on the storage device and sent to Microsoft the next
time they sign in to Xbox, even if they have been playing offline.
Xbox diagnostic data. If your child uses Xbox console, Xbox will send required data to
Microsoft. Required data is the minimum data necessary to help keep Xbox safe, secure,
up to date, and performing as expected.
Game captures. Any player in a multiplayer game session can record video (game clips)
and capture screenshots of their view of the game play. Other players’ game clips and
screenshots can capture your child’s in-game character and gamertag during that
session. If a player captures game clips and screenshots on a PC, the resulting game
clips might also capture audio chat if your child’s privacy and communication settings
on the Xbox online network allow it.
Captioning. During Xbox real-time (“party”) chat, players may activate a voice-to-text
feature that lets them view that chat as text. If a player activates this feature, Microsoft
uses the resulting text data to provide captioning of chat for players who need it. This
data may also be used to provide a safe gaming environment and enforce
the Community Standards for Xbox.
Data use. Microsoft uses the data we collect when your child uses Xbox to improve
gaming products and experiences— making it safer and more fun over time. Data we
collect also enables us to provide your child with curated experiences. This includes
connecting them to games, content, services, and recommendations.
Xbox data viewable by others. When your child is using the Xbox network, their
online presence (which can be set to “appear offline” or “blocked”), gamertag, game
play statistics, and achievements are visible to other players on the network. Depending
on how you set your child’s Xbox safety settings, they might share information when
playing or communicating with others on the Xbox network.
Safety. In order to help make the Xbox network a safe gaming environment and
enforce the Community Standards for Xbox, we may collect and review voice, text,
images, videos and in-game content (such as game clips your child uploads,
conversations they have, and things they post in clubs and games).
Anti-cheat and fraud prevention. Providing a fair gameplay environment is important
to us. We prohibit cheating, hacking, account stealing, and any other unauthorized or
fraudulent activity when your child uses an Xbox online game or any networkconnected app on their Xbox console, PC, or mobile device. In order to detect and
prevent fraud and cheating, we may use anti-cheat and fraud prevention tools,
applications, and other technologies. Such technologies may create digital signatures
(known as “hashes”) using certain information collected from their Xbox console, PC, or
mobile device, and how they use that device. This can include information about the
browser, device, activities, game identifiers, and operating system.
Xbox data shared with game and apps publishers. When your child uses an Xbox
online game or any network-connected app on their Xbox console, PC, or mobile
device, the publisher of that game or app has access to data about their usage to help
the publisher deliver, support, and improve its product. This data may include: your
child’s Xbox user identifier, gamertag, limited account info such as country and age
range, data about your child’s in-game communications, any Xbox enforcement activity,
game-play sessions (for example, moves made in-game or types of vehicles used ingame), your child’s presence on the Xbox network, the time they spend playing the
game or app, rankings, statistics, gamer profiles, avatars, or gamerpics, friends lists,
activity feeds for official clubs they belong to, official club memberships, and any
content they create or submit in the game or app.
Third-party publishers and developers of games and apps have their own distinct and
independent relationship with users and their collection and usage of personal data is
subject to their specific privacy policies. You should carefully review their policies to
determine how they use your child’s data. For example, publishers may choose to
disclose or display game data (such as on leaderboards) through their own services. You
may find their policies linked from the game or app detail pages in our stores.
Learn more at Data Sharing with Games and Apps.
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To stop sharing game or app data with a publisher, remove its games or app from all
devices where they have been installed. Some publisher access to your child’s data may
be revoked at microsoft.com/consent.
Managing child settings. As the organizer of a Microsoft family group, you can
manage a child’s information and settings on their Family Safety page, as well as their
Xbox profile privacy settings from their Xbox Privacy & online safety page.
You can also use the Xbox Family Settings app to manage your child’s experience on
the Xbox Network including: spending for Microsoft and Xbox stores, viewing your
child’s Xbox activity, and setting age ratings and the amount of screen time. Xboxspecific Family Safety settings will apply on Xbox console or via Xbox on PC or mobile
device but may not be applied on other platforms.
Learn more about managing Xbox profiles at Xbox online safety and privacy settings.
Learn more about Microsoft family groups at Simplify your family’s life.
Legacy.
Xbox 360. This Xbox console collects limited required diagnostic data. This data
helps keep your child’s console functioning as expected.
Kinect. The Kinect sensor is a combination of camera, microphone, and infrared
sensor that can enable motions and voice to be used to control game play. For
example:
If you choose, the camera can be used to sign in to the Xbox network
automatically using facial recognition. This data stays on the console, is not
shared with anyone, and can be deleted at any time.
For game play, Kinect will map distances between the joints on your child’s
body to create a stick figure representation to enable play.
The Kinect microphone can enable voice chat between players during play.
The microphone also enables voice commands for control of the console,
game, or app, or to enter search terms.
The Kinect sensor can also be used for audio and video communications
through services such as Skype.
Learn more about Kinect at Xbox Kinect and Privacy.
Other important privacy information
Below you will find additional privacy information, such as how we secure your data,
where we process your data, and how long we retain your data. You can find more
information on Microsoft and our commitment to protecting your privacy at Microsoft
Privacy.
Security of personal data
Microsoft is committed to protecting the security of your personal data. We use
a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect your personal
data from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. For example, we store the
personal data you provide on computer systems that have limited access and
are in controlled facilities. When we transmit highly confidential data (such as a
credit card number or password) over the internet, we protect it through the use
of encryption. Microsoft complies with applicable data protection laws, including
applicable security breach notification laws.
Where we store and process personal data
Personal data collected by Microsoft may be stored and processed in your
region, in the United States, and in any other jurisdiction where Microsoft or its
affiliates, subsidiaries, or service providers operate facilities. Microsoft maintains
major data centers in Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Finland, France, Germany,
Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Malaysia, the Netherlands,
Singapore, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Typically,
the primary storage location is in the customer’s region or in the United States,
often with a backup to a data center in another region. The storage location(s)
are chosen in order to operate and provide our services efficiently, improve
performance, and create redundancies in order to protect the data in the event
of an outage or other problem. We take steps to process the data that we collect
under this privacy statement according to this statement’s provisions and the
requirements of applicable law.
We transfer personal data from the European Economic Area, the United
Kingdom, and Switzerland to other countries, some of which have not yet been
determined by the European Commission to have an adequate level of data
protection. For example, their laws may not guarantee you the same rights, or
there may not be a privacy supervisory authority there that is capable of
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addressing your complaints. When we engage in such transfers, we use a variety
of legal mechanisms, including contracts such as the standard contractual
clauses published by the European Commission under Commission
Implementing Decision 2021/914, to help protect your rights and enable these
protections to travel with your data. To learn more about the European
Commission’s decisions on the adequacy of the protection of personal data in
the countries where Microsoft processes personal data, see this article on the
European Commission website.
Microsoft Corporation complies with the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (EUU.S. DPF), the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF, and the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy
Framework (Swiss-U.S. DPF) as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Microsoft Corporation has certified to the U.S. Department of Commerce that it
adheres to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework Principles (EU-U.S. DPF
Principles) with regard to the processing of personal data received from the
European Union in reliance on the EU-U.S. DPF and from the United Kingdom
(and Gibraltar) in reliance on the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF. Microsoft
Corporation has certified to the U.S. Department of Commerce that it adheres to
the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework Principles (Swiss-U.S. DPF Principles) with
regard to the processing of personal data received from Switzerland in reliance
on the Swiss-U.S. DPF. In the context of an onward transfer, Microsoft
Corporation has responsibility for the processing of personal data it receives
under the DPF and subsequently transfers to a third party acting as an agent on
our behalf. Microsoft Corporation remains liable under the DPF if our agent
processes such personal information in a manner inconsistent with the DPF,
unless Microsoft Corporation can prove that we are not responsible for the
event giving rise to the damage. If there is any conflict between the terms in this
privacy statement and the EU-U.S. DPF Principles and/or the Swiss-U.S. DPF
Principles, the Principles shall govern. To learn more about the Data Privacy
Framework (DPF) program, and to view our certification, please visit the U.S.
Department of Commerce’s Data Privacy Framework website. The controlled U.S.
subsidiaries of Microsoft Corporation, as identified in our self-certification
submission, also adhere to the DPF Principles—for more info, see the list of .
If you have a question or complaint related to participation by Microsoft in the
DPF Frameworks, we encourage you to contact us via our web form. For any
complaints related to the DPF Frameworks that Microsoft cannot resolve directly,
we have chosen to cooperate with the relevant EU Data Protection Authority, or
a panel established by the European data protection authorities, for resolving
disputes with EU individuals, the UK Information Commissioner (for UK
individuals), and the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information
Commissioner (FDPIC) for resolving disputes with Swiss individuals. Please
contact us if you’d like us to direct you to your data protection authority
contacts. As further explained in the DPF Principles, binding arbitration is
available to address residual complaints not resolved by other means. Microsoft
is subject to the investigatory and enforcement powers of the U.S. Federal Trade
Commission (FTC).
Individuals whose personal data is protected by Japan's Act on the Protection of
Personal Information should refer to the article on the Japanese Personal
Information Protection Commission’s website (only published in Japanese) for
more information on the commission’s review of certain countries’ personal data
protection systems. For individuals in Japan, please click here for additional
information on the processing of information under the Telecommunications
Business Act (in Japanese only).
Our retention of personal data
Microsoft retains personal data for as long as necessary to provide the products
and fulfill the transactions you have requested, or for other legitimate purposes
such as complying with our legal obligations, resolving disputes, and enforcing
our agreements. Because these needs can vary for different data types, the
context of our interactions with you or your use of products, actual retention
periods can vary significantly.
Other criteria used to determine the retention periods include:
Do customers provide, create, or maintain the data with the
expectation we will retain it until they affirmatively remove
it? Examples include a document you store in OneDrive, or an email
message you keep in your Outlook.com inbox. In such cases, we would aim
to maintain the data until you actively delete it, such as by moving an
email from your Outlook.com inbox to the Deleted Items folder, and then
emptying that folder (when your Deleted Items folder is emptied, those
emptied items remain in our system for up to 30 days before final
deletion). (Note that there may be other reasons why the data has to be
deleted sooner, for example if you exceed limits on how much data can be
stored in your account.)
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Is there an automated control, such as in the Microsoft privacy
dashboard, that enables the customer to access and delete the
personal data at any time? If there is not, a shortened data retention time
will generally be adopted.
Is the personal data of a sensitive type? If so, a shortened retention time
would generally be adopted.
Has Microsoft adopted and announced a specific retention period for
a certain data type? For example, for Bing search queries, we de-identify
stored queries by removing the entirety of the IP address after 6 months,
and cookie IDs and other cross-session identifiers that are used to identify
a particular account or device after 18 months.
Has the user provided consent for a longer retention period? If so, we
will retain data in accordance with your consent.
Is Microsoft subject to a legal, contractual, or similar obligation to
retain or delete the data? Examples can include mandatory data retention
laws in the applicable jurisdiction, government orders to preserve data
relevant to an investigation, or data retained for the purposes of litigation.
Conversely, if we are required by law to remove unlawful content, we will
do so.
U.S. State Data Privacy
If you are a U.S. resident, we process your personal data in accordance with
applicable U.S. state data privacy laws, including the California Consumer Privacy
Act (CCPA). This section of our privacy statement contains information required
by the CCPA and other U.S. state data privacy laws and supplements our privacy
statement.
Please note that rules implementing some of these laws have not yet been
finalized. We will update our processes, disclosures, and this notice as these
implementing rules are finalized, and as otherwise necessary.
Please also see our U.S. State Data Privacy Laws Notice and our Consumer
Health Data Privacy Policy for additional information about the data we collect,
process, share and disclose, and your rights under applicable U.S. state data
privacy laws.
Sale. We do not sell your personal data. So, we do not offer an opt-out to the
sale of personal data.
Profiling. We do not engage in “profiling” that utilizes your personal data for
automated decision-making that produces legal or similarly significant effects.
So, we do not offer an opt-out for this type of profiling.
Share. We may “share” your personal data, as defined under California and other
applicable U.S. state laws, for personalized advertising purposes. As noted in our
Advertising section, we do not deliver personalized advertising to children
whose birthdate in their Microsoft account identifies them as under 18 years of
age.
In the bulleted list below, we outline the categories of data we share for
personalized advertising purposes, the recipients of the personal data, and our
purposes of processing. For a description of the data included in each category,
please see the Personal data we collect section.
Categories of Personal Data
Name and contact data
Recipients: Third parties that perform online advertising services for
Microsoft or that use Microsoft’s advertising technologies
Purposes of Processing: To deliver personalized advertising based on
your interests
Demographic data
Recipients: Third parties that perform online advertising services for
Microsoft or that use Microsoft’s advertising technologies
Purposes of Processing: To deliver personalized advertising based on
your interests
Subscription and licensing data
Recipients: Third parties that perform online advertising services for
Microsoft or that use Microsoft’s advertising technologies
Purposes of Processing: To deliver personalized advertising based on
your interests
Interactions
Recipients: Third parties that perform online advertising services for
Microsoft or that use Microsoft’s advertising technologies
Purposes of Processing: To deliver personalized advertising based on
your interests
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Please see the Advertising section for more information about our advertising
practices, and our U.S. State Data Privacy Laws Notice for more information on
“sharing” for personalized advertising purposes under applicable U.S. state laws.
Rights. You have the right to (i) know what personal data we collect, use,
disclose, “share”, and sell, (ii) delete your personal data, (iii) correct your personal
data, (iv) restrict the use and disclosure of your sensitive data, (v) receive a copy
of your personal data, and (vi) opt-out of “sharing” your personal data with third
parties for personalized advertising purposes on third party sites. You may make
these requests yourself or through an authorized agent. If you use an authorized
agent, we provide your agent with detailed guidance on how to exercise your
privacy rights. Please see our U.S. State Data Privacy Laws Notice for additional
information on how to exercise these rights.
You may have additional rights related to your consumer health data as defined
by applicable state consumer health privacy laws. Please see our Consumer
Health Data Privacy Policy for information on the rights available under
Washington State’s My Health My Data Act (MHMDA) and other applicable U.S.
consumer health privacy laws.
If you have a Microsoft account, you can exercise your rights through the
Microsoft privacy dashboard, which requires you to log in to your Microsoft
account. If you have an additional request or questions after using the
dashboard, you may contact Microsoft at the address in the How to contact us
section, use our web form, or call our US toll free number +1 (844) 931 2038. If
you do not have an account, you may exercise your rights by contacting us as
described above. To further protect your personal data, we may ask for
additional information, such as your country of residence, email address, and
phone number to validate your identity and request before honoring the
request.
You may indicate your choice to opt-out of the sharing of your personal data
with third parties for personalized advertising on third party sites by visiting our
sharing opt-out page. You can also control the personalized advertising you see
on Microsoft properties by visiting our opt-out page.
We do not use or disclose your sensitive data for purposes other than those
listed below, without your consent, or as permitted or required under applicable
laws. So, we do not offer an ability to limit the use of sensitive data.
If you have made a request to Microsoft to know, delete, correct, or receive your
personal information and believe your request was denied by Microsoft, you can
exercise your right to appeal the results of your request by contacting our
privacy support team via our web form. If your appeal is unsuccessful and
depending upon the state where you live, you may have the right to raise a
concern or lodge a complaint with your state attorney general.
You have a right not to receive discriminatory treatment if you exercise your
privacy rights. We will not discriminate against you if you exercise your privacy
rights.
Personal information processing. In the bulleted list below, we outline the
categories of personal data we collect, the sources of the personal data, our
purposes of processing, and the categories of third-party recipients with whom
we provide the personal data. For a description of the data included in each
category, please see the Personal data we collect section. Please see the Our
retention of personal data section for information on personal data retention
criteria.
Categories of Personal Data
Name and contact data
Sources of personal data: Interactions with users and partners with
whom we offer co-branded services
Purposes of Processing (Collection and Disclosure to Third Parties):
Provide our products; respond to customer questions; help, secure,
and troubleshoot; and marketing
Recipients: Service providers and user-directed entities
Credentials
Sources of personal data: Interactions with users and organizations
that represent users
Purposes of Processing (Collection and Disclosure to Third Parties):
Provide our products; authentication and account access; and help,
secure and troubleshoot
Recipients: Service providers and user-directed entities
Demographic data
Sources of personal data: Interactions with users and purchases from
data brokers
Purposes of Processing (Collection and Disclosure to Third Parties):
Provide and personalize our products; product development; help,
secure, and troubleshoot; and marketing
Recipients: Service providers and user-directed entities
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Payment data
Sources of personal data: Interactions with users and financial
institutions
Purposes of Processing (Collection and Disclosure to Third Parties):
Transact commerce; process transactions; fulfill orders; help, secure,
and troubleshoot; and detect and prevent fraud
Recipients: Service providers and user-directed entities
Subscription and licensing data
Sources of personal data: Interactions with users and organizations
that represent users; third-party storefronts and platforms on which
our products are purchased
Purposes of Processing (Collection and Disclosure to Third Parties):
Provide, personalize, and activate our products; customer support;
help, secure, and troubleshoot; marketing; and accounting
Recipients: Service providers and user-directed entities
Interactions
Sources of personal data: Interactions with users including data
Microsoft generates through those interactions
Purposes of Processing (Collection and Disclosure to Third Parties):
Provide and personalize our products; product improvement; product
development; marketing; and help, secure and troubleshoot
Recipients: Service providers and user-directed entities
Content
Sources of personal data: Interactions with users and organizations
that represent users
Purposes of Processing (Collection and Disclosure to Third Parties):
Provide our products; safety; and help, secure, and troubleshoot
Recipients: Service providers and user-directed entities
Video or recordings
Sources of personal data: Interactions with users and publicly
available sources
Purposes of Processing (Collection and Disclosure to Third Parties):
Provide our products; product improvement; product development;
marketing; help, secure, and troubleshoot; and safety
Recipients: Service providers and user-directed entities
Feedback and ratings
Sources of personal data: Interactions with users
Purposes of Processing (Collection and Disclosure to Third Parties):
Provide our products; product improvement; product development;
customer support; and help, secure, and troubleshoot
Recipients: Service providers and user-directed entities
While the bulleted list above contains the primary sources and purposes of
processing for each category of personal data, we also collect personal data
from the sources listed in the Personal data we collect section, such as
developers who create experiences through or for Microsoft products. Similarly,
we process all categories of personal data for the purposes described in the
How we use personal data section, such as meeting our legal obligations,
developing our workforce, and doing research.
Subject to your privacy settings, your consent, and depending on the products
you use and your choices, we may collect, process, or disclose certain personal
data that qualifies as “sensitive data” under applicable U.S. state data privacy
laws. Sensitive data is a subset of personal data. In the list below, we outline the
categories of sensitive data we collect, the sources of the sensitive data, our
purposes of processing, and the categories of third party recipients with whom
we share the sensitive data. Please see the Personal data we collect section for
more information about the sensitive data we may collect.
Categories of Sensitive Data
Account log-in, financial account, debit or credit card number, and the
means to access the account (security or access code, password,
credentials, etc.)
Sources of sensitive data: Interactions with users and organizations
that represent users
Purposes of Processing (Collection and Disclosure to Third Parties):
Provide the product and fulfill requested financial transactions
Recipients: Service providers and payment processing providers
Precise geo-location information
Sources of sensitive data: Users’ interactions with the products
Purposes of Processing (Collection and Disclosure to Third Parties):
Provide the service requested; product improvement; some attributes
may be disclosed to third parties to provide the service
Recipients: Users and service providers (please see the Windows
Location Services and Recording section of our privacy statement for
more information)
Racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, or union
membership
Sources of sensitive data: Communications with users
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Purposes of Processing (Collection and Disclosure to Third Parties):
Conduct research studies to better understand how our products are
used and perceived and for the purposes of improving the product
experiences
Recipients: Service providers
Medical or mental health, sex life, or sexual orientation
Sources of sensitive data: Communications with users
Purposes of Processing (Collection and Disclosure to Third Parties):
Conduct research studies to better understand how our products are
used and perceived and for the purposes of improving the product
experiences and accessibility
Recipients: Service providers
Contents of your mail, email, or text messages (where Microsoft is not the
intended recipient of the communication)
Sources of sensitive data: Users’ interactions with the products
Purposes of Processing (Collection and Disclosure to Third Parties):
Provide our products; improve the product experience; safety; and
help, secure, and troubleshoot
Recipients: Service providers
Personal data collected from a known child under 13 years of age
Sources of sensitive data: Interactions with users and organizations
that represent users
Purposes of Processing (Collection and Disclosure to Third Parties):
Provide our products; product improvement; product development;
recommendations; help, secure, and troubleshoot; and safety
Recipients: Service providers and user-directed entities (in
accordance with your Microsoft Family Safety settings)
While the bulleted list above contains the primary sources and purposes of
processing for personal data collected from children under 13, we also collect
personal data from the sources listed in the Collection of Data from
Children section.
We do not use or disclose your sensitive data for purposes other than the
following:
Perform the services or provide the goods you reasonably expect
Help ensure the security and integrity of our services, systems, and data, to
combat malicious deceptive, fraudulent or illegal acts, and to protect the
physical safety of individuals, to the extent the processing is reasonably
necessary and proportionate
For short-term transient use (including non-personalized advertising), so
long as the personal data is not disclosed to a third party, is not used for
profiling, and is not used to alter an individual’s experience outside the
current interaction with Microsoft
Perform services on behalf of Microsoft, such as maintaining accounts,
providing customer service, processing, or fulfilling orders/transactions,
verifying customer information, processing payments, providing financing,
providing analytics, providing storage, and similar services
Undertake activities to verify or maintain the quality or safety of, or
improve, upgrade, or enhance a service or device owned or controlled by
Microsoft
Collect or process sensitive data where the collection or processing is not
for inferring characteristics about the individual
Any other activities in accordance with any future regulations that are
issued pursuant to U.S. state data privacy laws
De-Identified Data. In some situations, Microsoft may process de-identified
data. Data is in this state when we are not able to link data to an individual to
whom such data may relate without taking additional steps. In those instances,
and unless allowed under applicable law, we will maintain such information in a
de-identified state, and will not try to re-identify the individual to whom the deidentified data relates.
Disclosures of personal data for business or commercial purposes. As
indicated in the Reasons we share personal data section, we share personal data
with third parties for various business and commercial purposes. The primary
business and commercial purposes for which we share personal data are the
purposes of processing listed in the table above. However, we share all
categories of personal data for the business and commercial purposes in the
Reasons we share personal data section.
Parties that control collection of personal data. In certain situations, we may
allow a third party to control the collection of your personal data. For example,
third party applications or extensions that run on Windows or Edge browser may
collect personal data based on their own practices.
Microsoft allows advertising companies to collect information about your
interactions with our websites in order to deliver personalized ads on Microsoft’s
behalf. You can view our third party ad partners on the U.S. State Data Privacy
Laws Notice, and opt-out of data sharing with third parties at our .
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Advertising
Advertising allows us to provide, support, and improve some of our products.
Microsoft does not use what you say in email, human-to-human chat, video calls
or voice mail, or your documents, photos, or other personal files to target ads to
you. We use other data, detailed below, for advertising on our Microsoft
properties and on third-party properties. For example:
Microsoft may use data we collect to select and deliver some of the ads
you see on Microsoft web properties, such as Microsoft.com, Microsoft
Start, and Bing. We may also use such data to select and deliver ads on
third party digital properties.
When the advertising ID is enabled in Windows as part of your privacy
settings, third parties can access and use the advertising ID (much the
same way that websites can access and use a unique identifier stored in a
cookie) to select and deliver ads in such apps.
We may share data we collect with internal and external partners, such as
Xandr, Yahoo, or Facebook (see below), so that the ads you see in our
products and their products are more relevant and valuable to you.
Advertisers may choose to place our web beacons on their sites, or use
similar technologies, in order to allow Microsoft to collect information on
their sites such as activities, purchases, and visits; we use this data on
behalf of our advertising customers to provide ads.
The ads that you see may be selected based on data we process about you, such
as your interests and favorites, your location, your transactions, how you use our
products, your search queries, or the content you view. For example, if you view
content on Microsoft Start about automobiles, we may show advertisements
about cars; if you search “pizza places in Seattle” on Bing, you may see
advertisements in your search results for restaurants in Seattle.
The ads that you see may also be selected based on other information learned
about you over time using demographic data, location data, search queries,
interests and favorites, usage data from our products and sites, and the
information we collect about you from the sites and apps of our advertisers and
partners. We refer to these ads as "personalized advertising" in this statement.
For example, if you view gaming content on xbox.com, you may see ads for
games on Microsoft Start. To provide personalized advertising, we combine
cookies placed on your device using information that we collect (such as IP
address) when your browser interacts with our websites. If you opt out of
receiving personalized advertising, data associated with these cookies will not be
used.
We may use information about you to serve you with personalized advertising
when you use Microsoft services. If you are logged in with your Microsoft
account and have consented to allow Microsoft Edge to use your online activity
for personalized advertising, you will see ads for products and services based on
your online activity while using Microsoft Edge. To configure your privacy
settings for Edge, go to Microsoft Edge > Settings > Privacy and Services. To
configure your privacy and ad settings for your Microsoft account with respect
to your online activity across browsers, including Microsoft Edge, or when
visiting third-party websites or apps, go to your dashboard at
privacy.microsoft.com.
Further details regarding our advertising-related uses of data include:
Advertising industry best practices and commitments. Microsoft is a
member of the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) and adheres to the
NAI Code of Conduct. We also adhere to the following self-regulatory
programs:
In the US: Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA)
In Europe: European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance (EDAA)
In Canada: Ad Choices: Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada
(DAAC) / Choix de Pub: l'Alliance de la publicité numérique du
Canada (DAAC)
Health-related ad targeting. In the United States, we provide
personalized advertising based on a limited number of standard, nonsensitive health-related interest categories, including allergies, arthritis,
cholesterol, cold and flu, diabetes, gastrointestinal health, headache /
migraine, healthy eating, healthy heart, men’s health, oral health,
osteoporosis, skin health, sleep, and vision / eye care. We will also
personalize ads based on custom, non-sensitive health-related interest
categories as requested by advertisers.
Children and advertising. We do not deliver personalized advertising to
children whose birthdate in their Microsoft account identifies them as
under 18 years of age.
Data retention. For personalized advertising, we retain data for no more
than 13 months, unless we obtain your consent to retain the data longer.
Sensitive Data. Microsoft Advertising does not collect, process, or disclose
personal data that qualifies as “sensitive data” under applicable U.S. state
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data privacy laws for the purposes of providing personalized advertising.
Data sharing. In some cases, we share with advertisers reports about the
data we have collected on their sites or ads.
Data collected by other advertising companies. Advertisers sometimes
include their own web beacons (or those of their other advertising partners)
within their advertisements that we display, enabling them to set and read their
own cookie. Additionally, Microsoft partners with Xandr, a Microsoft company,
and third-party ad companies to help provide some of our advertising services,
and we also allow other third-party ad companies to display advertisements on
our sites. These third parties may place cookies on your computer and collect
data about your online activities across websites or online services. These
companies currently include, but are not limited to: Facebook, Media.net,
Outbrain, Taboola and Yahoo. Select any of the preceding links to find more
information on each company's practices, including the choices it offers. Many of
these companies are also members of the NAI or DAA, which each provide a
simple way to opt out of ad targeting from participating companies.
To opt out of receiving personalized advertising from Microsoft, visit our optout page. When you opt out, your preference is stored in a cookie that is specific
to the web browser you are using. The opt-out cookie has an expiration date of
five years. If you delete the cookies on your device, you need to opt out again.
Speech recognition technologies
Speech recognition technologies are integrated into many Microsoft products
and services. Microsoft provides both device-based speech recognition features
and cloud-based (online) speech recognition features. Microsoft’s speech
recognition technology transcribes voice data into text. With your permission,
Microsoft employees and vendors working on behalf of Microsoft, will be able to
review snippets of your voice data or voice clips in order to build and improve
our speech recognition technologies. These improvements allow us to build
better voice-enabled capabilities that benefit users across all our consumer and
enterprise products and services. Prior to employee or vendor review of voice
data, we protect users’ privacy by taking steps to de-identify the data, requiring
non-disclosure agreements with relevant vendors and their employees, and
requiring that employees and vendors meet high privacy standards. Learn more
about Microsoft and your voice data.
Preview or free-of-charge releases
Microsoft offers preview, insider, beta or other free-of-charge products and
features ("previews") to enable you to evaluate them while providing Microsoft
with data about your use of the product, including feedback and device and
usage data. As a result, previews can automatically collect additional data,
provide fewer controls, and otherwise employ different privacy and security
measures than those typically present in our products. If you participate in
previews, we may contact you about your feedback or your interest in
continuing to use the product after general release.
Changes to this privacy statement
We update this privacy statement when necessary to provide greater
transparency or in response to:
Feedback from customer, regulators, industry, or other stakeholders.
Changes in our products.
Changes in our data processing activities or policies.
When we post changes to this statement, we will revise the "last updated" date
at the top of the statement and describe the changes on the Change
history page. If there are material changes to the statement, such as a change to
the purposes of processing of personal data that is not consistent with the
purpose for which it was originally collected, we will notify you either by
prominently posting a notice of such changes before they take effect or by
directly sending you a notification. We encourage you to periodically review this
privacy statement to learn how Microsoft is protecting your information.
How to contact us
If you have a privacy concern, complaint, or question for the Microsoft Chief
Privacy Officer or the Data Protection Officer for your region, please contact us
by using our web form. We will respond to questions or concerns as required by
law and within a period no longer than 30 days. You can also raise a concern or
lodge a complaint with a data protection authority or other official with
jurisdiction.
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When Microsoft is a controller, unless otherwise stated, Microsoft Corporation
and, for those in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and
Switzerland, Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited are the data controllers for
personal data we collect through the products subject to this statement. Our
addresses are:
Microsoft Privacy, Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond,
Washington 98052, USA. Telephone: +1 (425) 882 8080.
Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited, Attn: Data Protection Officer, One
Microsoft Place, South County Business Park, Leopardstown, Dublin 18,
Ireland. Telephone: +353 1 706 3117.
To find the Microsoft subsidiary in your country or region, see the list of
Microsoft office locations around the world.
The representative of Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited within the meaning
of Art. 14 of the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection is Microsoft Schweiz
GmbH, The Circle 02, 8058 Zürich-Flughafen, Switzerland.
If you would like to exercise your rights under applicable U.S. state data privacy
law, you may contact Microsoft at the U.S. address listed above, use our web
form, or call our U.S. toll free number +1 (844) 931 2038.
If you are a resident of Canada and its provinces you may contact the Microsoft
Data Protection Officer for Canada at Microsoft Canada Head Office, 4400-81
Bay St, Toronto, ON, M5J 0E7, at +1 (416) 349 2506, or by using our web form.
Where French law applies, you can also send us specific instructions regarding
the use of your personal data after your death, by using our web form.
If you have a technical or support question, please visit Microsoft Support to
learn more about Microsoft Support offerings. If you have a personal Microsoft
account password question, please visit Microsoft account support.
We offer various means for you to control your personal data that Microsoft has
obtained, and to exercise your data protection rights. You can do so by
contacting Microsoft at our web form or the information above, or by using the
various tools we provide. Please see the How to access and control your
personal data section for additional details.
Artificial Intelligence and Microsoft Copilot capabilities
Microsoft leverages the power of artificial intelligence (AI) in many of our products and
services, including by incorporating generative AI features such as Microsoft Copilot
capabilities. Microsoft’s deployment and use of AI is subject to Microsoft’s AI
Principles and Microsoft’s Responsible AI Standard, and Microsoft’s collection and use
of personal data in developing and deploying AI features is consistent with
commitments outlined in this privacy statement. Product-specific details provide
additional relevant information. You can find out more about how Microsoft uses
AI here.
Microsoft Copilot capabilities. Microsoft Copilot is Microsoft’s everyday AI
companion, and is designed to help you achieve more through a single experience that
runs across devices, understanding relevant context on the web, on your PC, and across
apps to bring you the right skills at the right time. With the help of Copilot, users can
start a draft of a new Word document, generate a PowerPoint presentation, quickly find
the answers to complex search queries online, find relevant documents or other
personal content, or be inspired to create new songs, stories, images, or other content,
among other tasks. Copilot is a family of services, and Microsoft’s collection and use of
data may differ depending on the service and the intended functionality in a given
scenario.
The Copilot website and app (available on iOS and Android) is the core of the consumer
Copilot experience. Within this core experience, users can search the web, create text,
images, songs, or other outputs, or engage with other features, such as plugins. On the
website and in the app, users enter “prompts” that provide instructions to Copilot (e.g.,
“Give me recommendations for a restaurant that accommodates parties of 10 near
me”). In order to provide a relevant response, Copilot will use this prompt, along with
the user’s location, language, and similar settings, to formulate a helpful response. In
some markets, authenticated users can choose to allow Copilot to have access to prior
prompt history to better personalize the product. The consumer Copilot product uses
the data collected to provide and improve the Copilot services, including to provide
relevant advertising. Users who are signed-in to their account can manage their prompt
history in product and on the Microsoft Privacy Dashboard, and can adjust their
location, language, and other settings in the product.
Copilot also appears as an assistant within other Microsoft consumer products, such as
Bing and Microsoft Edge. In those situations, data processing activities generally align
with those products’ primary uses. For example, Copilot in Bing’s use and collection of
personal data is consistent with Bing’s core web search offering as described in the
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Search and Browse section of this privacy statement. More information about Copilot in
Bing is available at Copilot in Bing: Our approach to Responsible AI. In Microsoft Edge,
Copilot appears in the sidebar experience and can help the user complete tasks related
to the webpages they visit (e.g., “summarize this page”). This data is used consistent
with the Microsoft Edge section of this privacy statement.
Copilot Pro is another consumer Copilot offering, and offers subscribers priority access
to the very latest models, improved image creation abilities, and access to Copilot in
Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, OneNote, Excel, and Outlook. The main Copilot Pro
website and app has similar data collection, use, and controls as consumer Copilot, as
described above. When Copilot is integrated with Microsoft 365 products, Copilot data
collection is consistent with how data collection and use is described in the Productivity
and Communications section of this privacy statement.
There are also Copilot offerings designed for enterprise users. When enabled by an
eligible enterprise, users logged in with their Entra ID who want to access consumer
Copilot services are offered Copilot with Commercial Data Protection, which minimizes
data collection and use consistent with the expectations of enterprise users. More
information on Copilot with Commercial Data Protection is available here.
Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 enterprise offers enterprise-grade data protection
along with access to the corporate graph, Copilot within Microsoft 365 and Teams, and
additional customization features. Data collection and use in Copilot for Microsoft 365
enterprise is consistent with the practices described in the Enterprise and Developer
Products section of this privacy statement.
Enterprise and developer products
Enterprise and Developer Products are Microsoft products and related software offered
to and designed primarily for use by organizations and developers. They include:
Cloud services, referred to as Online Services in the Product Terms, such as
Microsoft 365 and Office 365, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Dynamics365, and
Microsoft Intune for which an organization (our customer) contracts with
Microsoft for the services (“Enterprise Online Services”).
Other enterprise and developer tools and cloud-based services, such as Azure
PlayFab Services (to learn more see Azure PlayFab Terms of Service).
Server, developer, and hybrid cloud platform products, such as Windows Server,
SQL Server, Visual Studio, System Center, Azure Stack and open source software
like Bot Framework solutions (“Enterprise and Developer Software”).
Appliances and hardware used for storage infrastructure, such as StorSimple
(“Enterprise Appliances”).
Professional services referred to in the Product Terms that are available with
Enterprise Online Services, such as onboarding services, data migration services,
data science services, or services to supplement existing features in the Enterprise
Online Services.
In the event of a conflict between this Microsoft privacy statement and the terms
of any agreement(s) between a customer and Microsoft for Enterprise and
Developer Products, the terms of those agreement(s) will control.
You can also learn more about our Enterprise and Developer Products’ features
and settings, including choices that impact your privacy or your end users’ privacy,
in product documentation.
If any of the terms below are not defined in this Privacy Statement or the Product
Terms, they have the definitions below.
General. When a customer tries, purchases, uses, or subscribes to Enterprise and
Developer Products, or obtains support for or professional services with such products,
Microsoft receives data from you and collects and generates data to provide the service
(including improving, securing, and updating the service), conduct our business
operations, and communicate with the customer. For example:
When a customer engages with a Microsoft sales representative, we collect the
customer’s name and contact data, along with information about the customer’s
organization, to support that engagement.
When a customer interacts with a Microsoft support professional, we collect
device and usage data or error reports to diagnose and resolve problems.
When a customer pays for products, we collect contact and payment data to
process the payment.
When Microsoft sends communications to a customer, we use data to personalize
the content of the communication.
When a customer engages with Microsoft for professional services, we collect the
name and contact data of the customer’s designated point of contact and use
information provided by the customer to perform the services that the customer
has requested.
The Enterprise and Developer Products enable you to purchase, subscribe to, or use
other products and online services from Microsoft or third parties with different privacy
practices, and those other products and online services are governed by their respective
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privacy statements and policies.
Enterprise online services
To provide the Enterprise Online Services, Microsoft uses data you provide
(including Customer Data, Personal Data, Administrator Data, Payment Data, and
Support Data) and data Microsoft collects or generates associated with your use
of the Enterprise Online Services. We process data as described in the Product
Terms, Microsoft Products and Services Data Protection Addendum (Products
and Services DPA), and the Microsoft Trust Center.
Personal Data. Customer is the controller of Personal Data and Microsoft is the
processor of such data, except when (a) Customer acts as a processor of
Personal Data, in which case Microsoft is a subprocessor or (b) as stated
otherwise in the standard Products and Services DPA. In addition, as provided in
the standard Products and Services DPA, Microsoft has taken on the added
responsibilities of a data controller under GDPR when processing Personal Data
in connection with its business operations incident to providing its services to
Microsoft’s commercial customers, such as billing and account management;
compensation; internal reporting and business modeling; and financial reporting.
We use Personal Data in the least identifiable form that will support processing
necessary for these business operations. We rely on statistical data and
aggregate pseudonymized Personal Data before using it for our business
operations, removing the ability to identify specific individuals.
Administrator Data. Administrator Data is the information provided to
Microsoft during sign-up, purchase, or administration of Enterprise Online
Services. We use Administrator Data to provide the Enterprise Online Services,
complete transactions, service the account, detect and prevent fraud, and
comply with our legal obligations. Administrator Data includes the name,
address, phone number, and email address you provide, as well as aggregated
usage data related to your account, such as the controls you select.
Administrator Data also includes contact information of your colleagues and
friends if you agree to provide it to Microsoft for the limited purpose of sending
them an invitation to use the Enterprise Online Services; we contact those
individuals with communications that include information about you, such as
your name and profile photo.
As needed, we use Administrator Data to contact you to provide information
about your account, subscriptions, billing, and updates to the Enterprise Online
Services, including information about new features, security, or other technical
issues. We also contact you regarding third-party inquiries we receive regarding
use of the Enterprise Online Services, as described in your agreement. You
cannot unsubscribe from these non-promotional communications. We may also
contact you regarding information and offers about other products and services,
or share your contact information with Microsoft's partners. When such a
partner has specific services or solutions to meet your needs, or to optimize your
use of the Enterprise Online Services, we may share limited, aggregated
information about your organization’s account with the partner. Microsoft will
not share your confidential information or contact information with the
authorized partner unless we have sufficient rights to do so. You can manage
your contact preferences or update your information in your account profile.
Payment Data. We use payment data to complete transactions, as well as to
detect and prevent fraud.
Support Data. Customers provide or authorize Microsoft to collect data in
connection with obtaining technical support for the Enterprise Online Services.
We process Support Data to provide technical support and as described in
the Products and Services DPA.
Local Software and Diagnostic Data. Some Online Services may require, or
may be enhanced by, the installation of local software (e.g., agents, device
management applications). The local software may collect Diagnostic Data (as
defined in the Products and Services DPA) about the use and performance of
that software. That data may be transmitted to Microsoft and used for the
purposes described in the Products and Services DPA.
Bing Search Services Data. Bing Search Services, as defined in the Product
Terms, use data such as search queries as described in the Bing section of this
privacy statement.
Enterprise and developer software and enterprise appliances
Enterprise and developer software and enterprise appliances collect data to
operate effectively and provide you the best experiences. The data we collect
depends on the features you use, as well as your configuration and settings, but
it is generally limited to device and usage data. Customers have choices about
the data they provide. Here are examples of the data we collect:
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During installation or when you upgrade an enterprise and developer
software, we may collect device and usage data to learn whether you
experience any difficulties.
When you use enterprise software or enterprise appliances, we may collect
device and usage data to learn about your operating environment to
improve security features.
When you experience a crash using enterprise software or enterprise
appliances, you may choose to send Microsoft an error report to help us
diagnose the problem and deliver customer support.
Microsoft uses the data we collect from enterprise and developer software and
enterprise appliances to provide and improve our products, to deliver customer
support, to activate the product, to communicate with you, and to operate our
business.
Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management platform and
includes products that can be installed separately (such as SQL Server
Management Studio). For detailed information about what data we collect, how
we use it, and how to manage your privacy options, visit the SQL Server privacy
page. If you work in an organization, your administrator can set certain telemetry
settings in SQL Server via Group Policy.
HoloLens. HoloLens headsets are self-contained Windows computers with Wi-Fi
connectivity that enable a mixed reality experience for apps and solutions.
Microsoft collects diagnostic data to solve problems and to keep Windows
running on HoloLens up to date, secure, and operating properly. Diagnostic data
also helps us improve HoloLens and related Microsoft products and services
depending on the diagnostic data settings you’ve chosen for your device. Learn
more about Windows diagnostic data.
HoloLens also processes and collects data related to the HoloLens experience
and device, which include cameras, microphones, and infrared sensors that
enable motions and voice to navigate.
If you choose, cameras can be used to sign you in automatically using your
iris. To do this, HoloLens takes an image of your iris and measures
distances between key points to create and store a numeric value that
represents only you. This data stays on the HoloLens and is not shared with
anyone, and you can choose to delete this data from your HoloLens at any
time.
HoloLens also detects hand gestures intended for system interactions
(such as menu navigation, pan/zoom, and scroll). This data is processed on
your HoloLens device and is not stored.
HoloLens derives tracking points based on your environment which allows
it to understand surfaces in space and allows you to place digital assets on
them. There are no images associated with this environmental data and it
is stored locally on the HoloLens device. You can choose to delete this data
from your HoloLens at any time.
The headset's microphones enable voice commands for navigation, controlling
apps, or to enter search terms. Learn more about voice data collection.
Productivity and communications products
Productivity and communications products are applications, software, and services you
can use to create, store, and share documents, as well as communicate with others.
Microsoft 365, Office, and other productivity apps
Microsoft 365, previous versions called Office 365, is a collection of subscription
productivity services and applications including Word, Excel, PowerPoint,
Outlook, and OneNote, among others. Office is the one-time purchase version
of these applications available on PC or Mac and includes Access and Publisher.
Both Microsoft 365 and Office are comprised of client software applications and
connected online services (or web apps in the case of Microsoft 365 for the web)
that span many platforms and have numerous interdependent experiences. For
more details about Outlook, see the Outlook section of this privacy statement.
Various cloud-based Microsoft 365 services enable you to use your file content
for designs and recommendations, collaborate with others within your
documents, and provide you functionality from other Microsoft products, such
as Bing, and third-party connected products. If you work in an organization, your
administrator may turn off or disable these connected services. You can access
the privacy controls within your Microsoft 365 and Office apps. For more
information, see Account Privacy Settings.
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Office Roaming Service. The Office Roaming Service helps keep your settings,
including your privacy settings, up to date across your devices running Microsoft
365 or Office apps. When you sign in to your apps with either your Microsoft
account or an account issued by your organization, the service syncs some of
your customized settings to Microsoft servers. For example, the service syncs a
list of most recently used documents or the last location viewed within a
document. When you sign in to another device with the same account, the
Office Roaming Service downloads your settings from Microsoft servers and
applies them to the additional device. When you sign out of your apps, the
service removes your settings from your device. Any changes you make to your
customized settings are sent to Microsoft servers.
Updates from Microsoft. Microsoft uses services such as Click-to-Run,
Microsoft AutoUpdate (for Mac), or Microsoft Update (for some versions of
Office) to provide you with security and other important updates.
These services can automatically detect the availability of online updates for
Microsoft 365 or Office apps on your device and download and install them
automatically.
Diagnostic Data. Diagnostic data is used to (i) keep your Microsoft 365 or Office
apps secure and up to date; (ii) detect, diagnose, and remediate problems; and
(iii) make product improvements. This data does not include a user’s name or
email address, the content of the user’s files, or information about apps
unrelated to Microsoft 365 or Office. Users have a choice between two different
levels of diagnostic data collection, Required and Optional.
Required. The minimum data necessary to help keep apps secure, up to
date, and performing as expected on the device it’s installed on.
Optional. Additional data that helps us make product improvements and
provides enhanced information to help us detect, diagnose, and remediate
issues.
See Diagnostic Data for more information.
Connected Experiences. Microsoft 365 continues to provide more experiences
in client applications that are connected to and backed by cloud-based services.
A subset of these connected experiences is also available in Office. If you choose
to use connected experiences, required service data will be collected to help
keep these connected experiences reliable, up to date, secure, and performing
as expected. See below for additional information about required service data.
Working with others on a document stored on OneDrive or translating the
contents of a Word document into a different language are examples of
connected experiences. There are two types of connected experiences.
Experiences that analyze your content. Experiences that use your file
content to provide you with design recommendations, editing suggestions,
data insights, and similar features. For example, PowerPoint Designer or
Editor in Word.
Experiences that download online content. Experiences that allow you
to search and download online content including templates, images, 3D
models, videos, and reference materials to enhance your documents. For
example, templates or PowerPoint QuickStarter.
You can access the privacy controls within your Microsoft 365 and Office client
apps. These privacy settings allow you to configure your connected experiences.
For example, you can choose to enable connected experiences that download
online content, but not connected experiences that analyze content. Turning off
connected experiences will also turn off additional experiences, such as
document co-authoring and online file storage. But even if you use this privacy
setting to turn off connected experiences, certain functionality will remain
available, such as syncing your mailbox in Outlook, as well as essential services
described below. These controls are not available when using Microsoft 365 for
the web, since you will already be cloud-connected. For more information about
accessing these controls, see Account Privacy Settings.
If you choose to disable certain types of connected experiences, either the
ribbon or menu command for those connected experiences will be grayed out or
you will get an error message when you try to use those connected experiences.
Essential services. There are a set of services that are essential to how Microsoft
365 and Office functions and cannot be disabled. For example, the licensing
service that confirms that you are properly licensed to use Microsoft 365 is
essential. Required service data about these services is collected and sent to
Microsoft, regardless of any other settings that you have configured. See
Essential Services for more information.
Required service data for connected experiences. As you use a connected
experience, data is sent to and processed by Microsoft to provide you that
connected experience. This data is necessary because this information enables
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us to deliver these cloud-based connected experiences. We refer to this data as
required service data.
Required service data can include information related to the operation of the
connected experience that is needed to keep the underlying service secure, up
to date, and performing as expected. If you choose to use a connected
experience that analyzes your content, for example Translate in Word, the text
you typed and selected to translate is also sent and processed to provide you
the connected experience. Your text and the translation are not stored by our
service. Required service data can also include information needed by a
connected experience to perform its task, such as configuration information
about the Microsoft 365 or Office app.
See Required service data for more information.
Copilot Pro. Available as a separate subscription service in select countries, the
Copilot Pro features that appear in Microsoft 365 provide AI-powered
productivity capabilities through real-time conversational experiences by
applying large language model (LLM) processing on the content you choose to
provide in Microsoft 365 apps including Word, Excel, OneNote, Outlook, and
PowerPoint. Copilot Pro is not available for use in Office. When used with
available Microsoft 365 apps, Copilot Pro will use the content in your files only
when you ask it to perform a specific action on that specific content - for
example, when you ask Copilot Pro to help you rewrite a paragraph in a Word
document or ask Copilot Pro to generate a to-do list from your notes in
OneNote. Similar to connected experiences, required service data is collected
during your use of Copilot Pro that includes information related to its operation
that is needed to keep the underlying service secure, up to date, and performing
as expected.
See Copilot Pro: Microsoft 365 apps and your privacy for more information.
Other Productivity Apps. Microsoft provides several productivity apps separate
from Microsoft 365 and Office, including Whiteboard (a free form digital canvas
using touch, type, and pen), To Do (a cloud-based task management app), and
Sticky Notes (a desktop notes app).
The apps use various cloud-based services to provide you with functionality
from other Microsoft products, such as providing images from Bing in
Whiteboard, recommending suggested tasks to add to My Day in To Do, and
taking advantage of Sticky Notes' integration with Outlook.
Using device capabilities. Some Microsoft 365 applications make use of your
device capabilities using certain features. In PowerPoint, the presentation
recording feature can access your device microphone and camera to record
presentations with audio and video. Your device microphone is also accessed via
the Record audio feature and when using Speaker Coach. As you speak, Speaker
Coach gives you on-screen guidance about pacing, inclusive language, use of
profanity, filler words, and whether you’re reading the slide text. When creating
a PowerPoint presentation, you can also use the Screenshot and Screen clipping
features to capture screen contents. Some Microsoft 365 applications,
PowerPoint, Word, and OneNote, provide Dictate, a connected experience which
lets you use speech-to-text to author content using your microphone. In Word
and OneNote, the Transcribe connected experience converts speech recorded
directly in the app using your microphone or using a speech audio recording to
a text transcript with each speaker individually separated. OneNote can insert
photos or record video using your camera. All Microsoft 365 apps along with To
Do and Whiteboard have sharing functionality that accesses your contacts to
allow you to share your documents with others in your contacts list. Applications
will not access your device capabilities until you begin using the feature.
You can manage your microphone and camera access settings in the Windows
Privacy Settings menu. Go to Start > Settings > Privacy or Privacy & Security.
To learn more about how to control your privacy settings in apps, see Windows
privacy settings that apps use.
Microsoft Family
This section applies to the Microsoft Family Safety M365 product, which allows a
family group to connect through the Microsoft Family Safety app on their
Windows, Xbox, or mobile devices. Please carefully review the information at
Microsoft Family Safety if choosing to create or join a family group.
Microsoft Family Safety can help parents and guardians to create a safer
environment for their family group with digital content filtering, screen time
limits, spending for Microsoft and Xbox stores, setting age ratings for apps and
games, and location sharing. To learn about how Microsoft collects and uses
children’s data, see the Collection of data from children section of the Privacy
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Statement. If you are using Microsoft Family Safety in Windows, see the
Windows security and safety features section of the Privacy Statement for
additional information.
To enable Family Safety controls on a child account, the child account must be
part of a family group. Accounts that require parental consent to be created are
automatically included as part of the family group of the individual who
consented to the child account’s creation. For accounts that do not require
parental consent to be created, the parent or guardian must add the account to
their family group in order to use Family Safety controls.
When you have enabled family activity reporting for a child, Microsoft will collect
details about how the child uses their devices, such as search, web, app, and
game activity, and provide parents with reports of that child's online activities.
Activity reports are routinely deleted from Microsoft servers.
Certain Family Safety features, such as Location Sharing, Drive Safety, Share
Drives, Places, and Location Alerts will use your location information when
enabled. When you have enabled Location Sharing, for instance, your device will
upload location data to the cloud and share it with others in your family group.
Microsoft retains only your last known location as part of the Location Sharing
feature (each new location replaces the previous one). When you enable Drive
Safety, your location will be used to record your drive habits such as whether
you are driving within the speed limits, if you’re using your phone while driving,
and if you accelerate or brake suddenly. These reports will be uploaded to the
cloud, and you can choose to share your drive reports with your family group.
You can turn off these location features at any time in the Family Safety settings.
You can manage your device’s location data at the Microsoft Privacy Dashboard.
Learn more about Family Safety and your location data.
Microsoft Launcher
Microsoft Launcher is an Android app that offers a highly customizable app
launcher experience on Android devices.
Microsoft Launcher lets you log in with your personal Microsoft account or work
account, or use it without any account. However, some functions may be limited
if you do not grant certain permissions.
To use Microsoft Launcher, the application must be installed on your Android
device, and optional permissions are required to enable the following features:
Microsoft Copilot. When signed in with your personal Microsoft account, you
can seamlessly use Copilot features like chat, web search, voice search, and
image search. Certain Copilot features require access to your device capabilities,
such as your device camera, microphone, photos, and videos. Please see our
Artificial Intelligence and Copilot capabilities section for more information. Learn
more about Copilot terms of use here.
Glance Feed. Glance helps you organize daily activities, such as Outlook
calendar, To Do list, Sticky Notes, and recent documents in your M365 apps.
After signing-in with your personal Microsoft account or your work account, the
data will be synced across devices signed into the same account to give you
personalized experiences. It also enables you to review recent activities, like
recent photos and app usage, which require permissions to access device
photos, files, and app usage data.
News Feed. When you sign in with your Microsoft account, you can enjoy a
personalized news feed and advertisements in Launcher’s News Feed,
synchronized across all your devices. You can also receive local curated news
when you grant Microsoft Launcher permission to access your location
information. You can manage your ad preferences through the Microsoft privacy
dashboard to tailor your experience.
Weather Notifications. Microsoft Launcher allows you to receive the latest and
most important weather changes on your home screen with MSN Weather. You
can receive up-to-date local weather information when you allow Launcher to
access to your location or provide your zip code.
Backup and Restore: Easily transfer between phones or try different home
screen setups with Microsoft Launcher's backup and restore feature. Backups
can be stored locally on your device or saved to your OneDrive account
associated with your Microsoft Account for easy access.
Microsoft Launcher supports Android work profile features, enabling you to
maintain a clear boundary between personal and work data on your device. This
means you can securely access work resources without mixing them with your
personal apps and data.
To learn more about Microsoft Launcher and its supported features, please visit .
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Microsoft Teams
This section applies to the consumer offering of Teams; if you are using Teams
with a school or work account, see the Enterprise and developer products of this
privacy statement.
Teams is an all-in-one collaboration and communication hub. Teams lets you
stay organised and connected across your entire life. Teams allows you to call
people with voice or video calling. Teams allows you to easily find people, files,
photos, conversations, tasks, and calendars in one convenient and secure place.
Teams allows you to store confidential information like passwords, rewards
numbers, or login information and share it with others within Teams. With your
consent, you can share your location with friends and family.
As part of providing these features, Microsoft collects data about the usage of
the features as well as information about your communications, including the
time and date of the communication and users that are part of the
communication. Microsoft may share this information with Enterprise customers
when you interact through meetings and chats with end users who are using
their school or work account. For instance, if you engage in a Teams chat with a
user who is using Teams associated with their school account, Microsoft may
share your information with that user's school as part of providing the Teams
service.
Teams profile. Your Teams profile includes information you provided when you
set up a Microsoft account. To enable other people to find you on Teams (or
products that interact with Teams for personal use, including Teams for
enterprise) your display name and picture are visible to other users on Teams
that have your contact information. Your Teams profile may be visible to
Enterprise customers and their end users when you engage with an end user of
an organization in chats and meetings.
Teams contacts. With your permission, Teams will sync your device, Outlook,
and Skype contacts periodically and check for other Teams users that match
contacts in your device, Outlook, or Skype address books. You are always in
control of your contacts and can stop syncing at any time. If you choose to stop
syncing your device, Outlook, or Skype contacts, or you are inactive on your
device, any contacts that have not been matched during the synchronization
process will be deleted from Teams. If you wish to invite any of your device,
Outlook, or Skype contacts to join a conversation, you can invite users to a 1:1
directly, or Microsoft can send an invitation on your behalf via SMS or email for
invitations to group conversations. You can block users if you do not want to
receive their communications; additionally, you can report a concern to
Microsoft.
Notice to non-user contacts. If your information appears in the device,
Outlook, or Skype address books of a Teams user who chooses to sync their
device, Outlook, or Skype contacts with their Teams contacts, Microsoft may
process your data in order to determine whether you are a current Teams user
and to allow Teams users to invite you to the service, including via SMS and
email. As long as the Teams user continues to be active on Teams on their device
and continues to enable contact syncing with the applicable device or service,
your information will be stored on our servers and we will periodically process
your information as a part of the Teams user’s contact syncing experience to
check whether you have subsequently joined Teams.
Learn more about how we process your information in connection with the
contact syncing feature offered to Teams users.
If you do choose to join Teams, you will appear as a suggested new Teams
contact for any Teams users with your information in their device, Outlook, or
Skype address books. As a Teams user, you will be able to block other Teams
users if you do not want to receive their communications; additionally, you can
report a concern to Microsoft.
Third-party contacts. You can also choose to sync contacts from third-party
providers. If you choose to unsync your third-party contacts on Teams, all thirdparty contacts are deleted from Teams. If you gave your consent to use those
third-party contacts on other Microsoft apps and services, these contacts will still
be available to those other Microsoft apps and services.
You can remove third-party contacts from all Microsoft apps and services by
removing third-party accounts from Teams. Please note that removing a thirdparty account from Teams may impact your experiences on other Microsoft apps
and services that also use that third-party account.
Teams calendar. You can also choose to sync your Teams calendar with
calendars from third-party providers. You can stop syncing your Teams calendar
anytime by removing a third-party account from Teams. If you have consented
to use third-party data on other Microsoft apps and services, please note that
removing this third-party account data in Teams may impact your experiences
on other Microsoft apps and services.
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Location sharing. You can share your static or live location with individuals or
groups within Teams. You are in control and can stop sharing at any time.
Sharing location for children is permitted with parental consent and in groups
where an adult from the Microsoft family group is present.
Push notifications. To let you know of incoming calls, chats, and other
messages, Teams uses the notification service on your device. For many devices,
these services are provided by another company. To tell you who is calling, for
example, or to give you the first few words of the new chat, Teams has to tell the
notification service so that they can provide the notification to you. The
company providing the notification service on your device will use this
information in accordance with their own terms and privacy policy. Microsoft is
not responsible for the data collected by the company providing the notification
service.
If you do not want to use the notification services for incoming Teams calls and
messages, turn it off in the settings found on your device.
Chats and meetings with Enterprise customer end users. Many Microsoft
products are intended for use by organizations, such as schools and businesses,
as well as individual users. Please see the Enterprise and developer products
section of this privacy statement if you are using Teams with a work or school
account. If you engage in Teams meetings or chats with end users of
organizations, the data you share with the end users is subject to their
organization’s policies, if any. You should direct your privacy inquiries related to
your data shared through chats and meetings with an organization’s end users,
including any requests to exercise your data protection rights, to the
organization’s administrator. Microsoft is not responsible for the privacy or
security practices of our customers, which may differ from those set forth in this
privacy statement.
OneDrive
OneDrive lets you store and access your files on virtually any device. You can
also share and collaborate on your files with others. Some versions of the
OneDrive application enable you to access both your personal OneDrive by
signing in with your personal Microsoft account and your OneDrive for Business
by signing in with your work or school Microsoft account as part of your
organization's use of Microsoft 365 or Office 365.
When you use OneDrive, we collect data about your usage of the service, as well
as the content you store, to provide, improve, and protect the services. Examples
include indexing the contents of your OneDrive documents so that you can
search for them later and using location information to enable you to search for
photos based on where the photo was taken. We also collect device information
so we can deliver personalized experiences, such as enabling you to sync
content across devices and roam customized settings.
When you store content in OneDrive, that content will inherit the sharing
permissions of the folder in which you store it. For example, if you decide to
store content in the public folder, the content will be public and available to
anyone on the internet who can find the folder. If you store content in a private
folder, the content will be private.
When you share content to a social network like Facebook from a device that
you have synced with your OneDrive account, your content is either uploaded to
that social network, or a link to that content is posted to that social network.
Doing this makes the content accessible to anyone on that social network. To
delete the content, you need to delete it from the social network (if it was
uploaded there, rather than a link to it) and from OneDrive.
When you share your OneDrive content with your friends via a link, an email with
the link is sent to those friends. The link contains an authorization code that
allows anyone with the link to access your content. If one of your friends sends
the link to other people, they will also be able to access your content, even if you
did not choose to share the content with them. To revoke permissions for your
content on OneDrive, sign in to your account and then select the specific
content to manage the permission levels. Revoking permissions for a link
effectively deactivates the link. No one will be able to use the link to access the
content unless you decide to share the link again.
Files managed with OneDrive for Business are stored separately from files stored
with your personal OneDrive. OneDrive for Business collects and transmits
personal data for authentication, such as your email address and password,
which will be transmitted to Microsoft and/or to the provider of your Microsoft
365 or Office 365 service.
Outlook
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Outlook products are designed to improve your productivity through improved
communications and include Outlook.com, Outlook applications, and related
services.
Outlook.com. Outlook.com is the primary consumer email service from
Microsoft and includes email accounts with addresses that end in outlook.com,
live.com, hotmail.com, and msn.com. Outlook.com provides features that let you
connect with your friends on social networks. You will need to create a Microsoft
account to use Outlook.com.
When you delete an email or item from a mailbox in Outlook.com, the item
generally goes into your Deleted Items folder where it remains for approximately
7 days unless you move it back to your inbox, you empty the folder, or the
service empties the folder automatically, whichever comes first. When the
Deleted Items folder is emptied, those emptied items remain in our system for
up to 30 days before final deletion, unless we are legally required to retain the
data for longer.
Outlook applications. Outlook client applications are software you install on
your device that permits you to manage email, calendar items, files, contacts,
and other data from email, file storage, and other services, like Exchange Online
or Outlook.com, or servers, like Microsoft Exchange. You can use multiple
accounts from different providers, including third-party providers, with Outlook
applications, including the new Outlook for Windows app.
To add an account, you must provide permission for Outlook to access data
from the email or file storage services.
When you add an account to Outlook, your mail, calendar items, files, contacts,
settings and other data from that account will automatically sync to your device.
If you are using the mobile Outlook application, that data will also sync to
Microsoft servers to enable additional features such as faster search,
personalized filtering of less important mail, and an ability to add email
attachments from linked file storage providers without leaving the Outlook
application. If you are using the desktop Outlook application, you can choose
whether to allow the data to sync to our servers. At any time, you can remove an
account or make changes to the data that is synced from your account.
If you add an account provided by an organization (such as your employer or
school), the owner of the organizational domain can implement policies and
controls (for example, requiring multi-factor authentication or the ability to
remotely wipe data from your device) that can affect your use of Outlook.
Using device capabilities. For Outlook clients that support it, the user can
dictate the contents of an email and send using the Dictate feature. The Dictate
feature may be configured to use the device’s microphone or any other
microphone that a user may connect to their device, like a microphone-enabled
pair of headphones. Outlook may also use your device location information to
provide you with weather information for your current location as well as
provide the ability to search for nearby locations.
To learn more about the data the Outlook applications collect and process,
please see the Microsoft 365 section of this privacy statement.
Skype
Skype lets you send and receive voice, video, SMS, and instant message
communications. This section applies to the consumer version of Skype; if you
are using Skype for Business, see the Enterprise and developer products section
of this privacy statement.
As part of providing these features, Microsoft collects usage data about your
communications that includes the time and date of the communication and the
numbers or user names that are part of the communication.
Skype profile. Your Skype profile includes information you provided when you
set up a Microsoft account. To enable other people to find you on Skype (or
products that interact with Skype, such as Skype for Business), depending on
your profile settings, your Skype profile is included in the Skype public search.
Your profile includes your user name, avatar, and any other data you choose to
add to your profile or display to others.
Emergency calling in the United States. If you enable location sharing for
emergency calling, your location will be periodically collected to enable
Microsoft to share your location with emergency calling service providers if you
dial 911. Your location information is only shared if you enable location sharing
for emergency calling and you initiate a 911 call.
Skype contacts. If you use Outlook.com to manage contacts, Skype will
automatically add the people you know to your Skype contact list until you tell
the application to stop. With your permission, Skype will sync your device
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contacts periodically and check for other Skype users that match contacts in
your device or Outlook address books. You are always in control of your contacts
and can stop syncing at any time. You can block users if you do not want to
receive their communications. If you choose to stop syncing your device
contacts, or you are inactive on your device, any contacts that have not been
matched during the synchronization process will be deleted from Skype. If you
wish to invite any of your device or Outlook contacts to join a conversation, you
can invite users to a 1:1 directly, or Microsoft can send an invitation on your
behalf via SMS or email for invitations to group conversations. You can block
users if you do not want to receive their communications; additionally, you can
report a concern to Microsoft.
Notice to non-user contacts. If your information appears in the device or
Outlook address book of a Skype user who chooses to sync their device or
Outlook contacts with their Skype contacts, Microsoft may process your data in
order to determine whether you are a current Skype user and to allow Skype
users to invite you to the service, including via SMS and email. As long as the
Skype user continues to be active on Skype on their device and continues to
enable contact syncing, your information will be stored on our servers and we
will periodically process your information as a part of the Skype user’s contact
synching experience to check whether you have subsequently joined Skype.
Learn more about how we process your information in connection with the
contact syncing feature offered to Skype users.
If you do choose to join Skype, you will appear as a suggested new Skype
contact for any Skype users with your information in their device or Outlook
address books. As a Skype user, you will be able to block other Skype users if
you do not want to receive their communications; additionally, you can report a
concern to Microsoft.
Partner companies. To make Skype available to more people, we partner with
other companies to allow Skype to be offered via those companies’ services. If
you use Skype through a company other than Microsoft, that company’s privacy
policy governs how it handles your data. To comply with applicable law or
respond to valid legal process, or to help our partner company or local operator
comply or respond, we may access, transfer, disclose, and preserve your data.
That data could include, for example, your private content, such as the content
of your instant messages, stored video messages, voicemails, or file transfers.
Skype Manager. Skype Manager lets you manage a group’s (such as your
family’s) Skype usage from one central place. When you set up a group, you will
be the Skype Manager Administrator and can see the patterns of usage,
including detailed information, like traffic data and details of purchases, of other
members of the group who have consented to such access. If you add
information like your name, other people in the group will be able to see it.
Members of the group can withdraw consent for Skype Manager by visiting
their Skype account page.
Push notifications. To let you know of incoming calls, chats, and other
messages, Skype apps use the notification service on your device. For many
devices, these services are provided by another company. To tell you who is
calling, for example, or to give you the first few words of the new chat, Skype has
to tell the notification service so that they can provide the notification to you.
The company providing the notification service on your device will use this
information in accordance with their own terms and privacy policy. Microsoft is
not responsible for the data collected by the company providing the notification
service. If you do not want to use the notification services for incoming Skype
calls and messages, turn it off in the settings found in the Skype application or
your device.
Translation features. When you use Skype’s translation features, Skype collects
and uses your conversation to provide the translation service. With your
permission, your data may be used to help improve Microsoft products and
services. To help the translation and speech recognition technology learn and
grow, sentences and automatic transcripts are analyzed and any corrections are
entered into our system, to build better performing services. This data may
include manual transcription of your voice clips. To learn more about how
Microsoft manages your voice data, see Speech recognition technologies.
Recording features. Some versions of Skype have a recording feature that
allows you to capture and share all or part of your audio / video call. The
recording will be stored and shared as part of your conversation history with the
person or group with whom the call occurred. You should understand your
legal responsibilities before recording any communication. This may
include obtaining the prior consent of everyone participating in the
conversation or any other authorizations as required. Microsoft is not
responsible for how you use your recordings or the recording features.
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Skype bots. Bots are programs offered by Microsoft or third parties that can do
many useful things like search for news, play games, and more. Depending on
their capabilities, bots may have access to your display name, Skype ID, country,
region, language, and any messages, audio, video, or content that you share
with the bot. Please review the bot profile and its privacy statement before
engaging in a one-to-one or group conversation with a bot. You can delete a
bot that you no longer wish to engage with. Prior to adding a bot to a group,
please ensure that your group participants have consented to their information
being shared with the bot.
Captioning. Certain Skype features include accessibility functionality such as
captioning. During Skype calls, a call participant can activate a voice-to-text
feature, which allows the user to view the audio chat as text. If a user activates
this feature, other call participants will not receive a notification. Microsoft uses
this voice and text data to provide captioning of audio for users.
Camera Features. When you use the camera feature in Skype, you can choose
to enhance your video and images with third party lens services. Lens is a feature
that uses Augmented Reality (AR) to transform your selfies in a fun way, such as
making you look like your favorite animal. Using the camera in Skype, you can
select the lens feature that is incorporated in the Skype to transform your face
and hands. Depending on which lens you choose, your video and images may
be processed to extract information about the location of different areas on your
face and hands. The extracted data is used for the sole purpose of applying AR
effects to your face and hands. None of this data is used to personally identify
you. This data is processed for the duration of the session on your device only,
and then deleted immediately. This data is not sent to Skype or any third party.
Surface
Microsoft offers its family of Surface devices and accessories to provide a great
computing experience, including surfing the web, watching and streaming
videos, playing games, running apps like Excel, Word, and OneNote, and more.
These include devices and accessories like Surface Laptops, Surface Studios,
Surface Book, Surface Pro, Surface Headphones, Surface Earbuds, Surface Dock,
Surface Keyboard, and more. As part of that experience, Microsoft collects
certain diagnostic data, as described below.
Diagnostic data. Microsoft collects diagnostic data as you use your Surface
devices, Surface accessories, and Surface applications. Diagnostic data can
include information about crashes, performance, and usage of Surface products.
The data that is sent to Microsoft is used to help keep Surface secure, up to
date, and performing as expected and can help us make other improvements to
Surface.
There are two levels of diagnostic and activity data: Required diagnostic data
and Optional diagnostic data.
Required diagnostic data is the minimum amount of data that we need
to help keep Surface devices, Surface accessories, and the Surface
application secure, up-to-date, and performing as expected.
Optional diagnostic data is additional diagnostic and usage data about
your Surface devices, Surface accessories, and the Surface application. If
you choose to send optional diagnostic data to Microsoft, required
diagnostic data is also included.
Required diagnostic data is always sent to Microsoft for all Surface devices,
Surface accessories, and the Surface application. But you can choose whether to
allow Surface to collect optional diagnostic data and send it to Microsoft. You
can make that choice when you first set up your Surface device or change the
setting at any time in the Surface app.
For more information, see Diagnostic data for Surface products and Diagnostic
data in the Surface app. For a list of Surface required diagnostic data collected,
see Required diagnostic data for Surface products.
Surface Duo
The Surface Duo is a device featuring two screens that fits in your pocket for
productivity on the go. Powered by the Google Android operating system,
Surface Duo supports cellular and Wi-Fi connectivity and can be used for email,
internet browsing, games, and business connectivity.
Microsoft provides a core Surface Duo experience that runs on the Android
operating system. The core Surface Duo experience includes apps such as the
Microsoft Launcher, Setup Wizard, and Your Phone Companion. You can sign in
with a Google ID and enable various Google services; you can then also sign in
with your Microsoft account (MSA) and enable Microsoft’s services. Microsoft
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apps and services may rely on information provided by Google. Some features,
such as location, require that you enable this functionality for Google and
separately allow Microsoft to leverage this information.
Diagnostic data. Surface Duo collects diagnostic data to solve problems and to
keep the core Surface Duo experience up to date, secure, and operating
properly. This data also helps us improve Surface Duo and related Microsoft
products and services. The data does not include your user name, email address,
or the content of your files. There are two levels of diagnostic data: Required
diagnostic data and Optional diagnostic data.
Required. The minimum data necessary to help keep the core Surface Duo
experience secure, up to date, and performing as expected.
Optional. Additional data that helps us make product improvements and
provides enhanced information to help Microsoft detect, diagnose, and
remediate issues.
Learn more in Surface Duo Privacy Settings.
Surface Duo location settings. Surface Duo relies on Google location services
to determine the device’s precise geographic location to display the local
weather. The location of your Surface Duo can be determined with varying
degrees of accuracy and may in some cases be determined precisely. If you want
Microsoft apps to be able to reference or display weather or other location
related information, you need to enable Google location services and Microsoft
location access. Some apps may require these settings be enabled
independently for the app and can be set or changed in the Surface Duo’s
Settings. The Google Privacy Policy provides details about Google’s location
service and related data privacy practices. See Surface Duo Location Settings for
more information.
Microsoft apps included with the Surface Duo. The diagnostic data options
for the core Surface Duo experience are configured when you initially set up
your Surface Duo and can be changed in the Surface Duo’s Settings under the
Diagnostic Data section.
The other Microsoft apps on your Surface Duo may prompt you to enable
functionality to enable the full experience of the app or you may be asked to
allow optional diagnostic data collection. You can change the settings for these
apps in the Surface Duo Settings under the app name. More information about
these apps is available in the Productivity and communications products and
Search and Browse sections of this Privacy Statement.
To learn about the data LinkedIn collects and how it is used and shared, please
see LinkedIn’s Privacy Policy.
Search and browse
Search and browse products connect you with information and intelligently sense,
process, and act on information—learning and adapting over time. For more
information on artificial intelligence and Copilot capabilities in Microsoft’s search
products, please see Artificial Intelligence and Microsoft Copilot capabilities section
above.
Bing
Bing services include search and mapping services, as well as other apps and
programs described in this section. Bing services collect and process data in
many forms, including text that has been inked or typed, voice data, and images.
Bing services are also included within other Microsoft services, such as Microsoft
365, and certain features in Windows (which we refer to as Bing-powered
experiences).
When you conduct a search, or use a feature of a Bing-powered experience that
involves conducting a search or entering a command on your behalf, Microsoft
will collect the searches or commands you provide (which may be in the form of
text, voice data, or an image), along with your IP address, location, the unique
identifiers contained in our cookies or similar technologies, the time and date of
your search, and your browser configuration. For example, if you use Bing voiceenabled services, your voice input and performance data associated with the
speech functionality will be sent to Microsoft. To learn more about how
Microsoft manages your voice data, see Speech recognition technologies. And,
if you use Bing image-enabled services, the image you provide will be sent to
Microsoft. When you use Bing-powered experiences, such as Bing Lookup to
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search a particular word or phrase within a webpage or document, that word or
phrase is sent to Bing along with some surrounding content in order to provide
contextually relevant search results.
AI-enhanced Bing search. Bing search now includes an AI-enhanced web
search functionality, using Microsoft Copilot in Bing, which supports users by
providing relevant search results, reviewing and summarizing from across the
web, refining research queries through the chat experience, and sparking
creativity by helping users create content. Copilot in Bing’s use and collection of
personal data is consistent with Bing’s core web search offering as described in
this section. More information about Copilot in Bing is available at Copilot in
Bing: Our approach to Responsible AI.
Search suggestions. For the search suggestions feature, the characters that you
type into a Bing-powered experience (such as search and site suggestions in the
Microsoft Edge browser) to conduct a search and what you click on will be sent
to Microsoft. This allows us to provide you with relevant suggestions as you type
your searches. To turn this feature on or off, while using Bing Search, go to Bing
Settings. There are other methods to control this feature in other Bing-powered
experiences, such as the Microsoft Edge browser. Search Suggestions cannot be
turned off in the search box in Windows 10 and Windows 11. If you choose, you
can always hide the search box or icon on the taskbar.
Bing experience improvement program for Bing Desktop and Bing Toolbar.
If you are using Bing Desktop or Bing Toolbar and choose to participate in the
Bing Experience Improvement Program, we also collect additional data about
how you use these specific Bing apps, such as the addresses of the websites you
visit, to help improve search ranking and relevance. To help protect your privacy,
we do not use the data collected through the Bing Experience Improvement
Program to identify or contact you or target advertising to you. You can turn off
the Bing Experience Improvement Program at any time in the Bing Desktop or
Bing Toolbar settings. Finally, we delete the information collected through the
Bing Experience Improvement Program after 18 months.
Retention and de-identification. We de-identify stored search queries by
removing the entirety of the IP address after 6 months, and cookie IDs and other
cross-session identifiers that are used to identify a particular account or device
after 18 months.
Personalization through Microsoft account. Some Bing services provide you
with an enhanced experience when you sign in with your personal Microsoft
account, for example, syncing your search history across devices. You can use
these personalization features to customize your interests, favorites, and
settings, and to connect your account with third-party services. Visit Bing
Settings to manage your personalization settings, or the Microsoft privacy
dashboard to manage your data.
Managing search history. When you’re signed-in to a personal Microsoft
account, you can erase your search and chat history on the Microsoft privacy
dashboard. The Search History service from Bing, located in Bing Settings,
provides another method of revisiting the search terms you've entered and
results you've clicked when using Bing search through your browser. You may
clear your search history on a device through this service. The conversations you
have with Microsoft Copilot in Bing are also remembered as “Recent activity”.
The history of previous Recent activities is saved, with the names of chats based
by default on the first query of the chat. Your Recent activity is displayed on the
right-hand side of the chat window when you are using the service. Clearing
your history prevents that history from being displayed in your Search History or
chat history, but does not delete information from our search logs, which are
retained and de-identified as described above or as you have instructed through
the privacy dashboard. If you are signed-in to a work or school Microsoft
account using Microsoft Search in Bing, you can export your Microsoft Search in
Bing search history, but you cannot delete it. Your Microsoft Search in Bing
service administrator can see aggregated search history across all enterprise
users but cannot see specific searches by user.
Third-party services that use Bing. You may access Bing-powered experiences
when using third-party services, such as those from Yahoo!. In order to provide
these services, Bing receives data from these and other partners, including your
search query and related data (such as date, time, IP address, and a unique
identifier). This data will be sent to Microsoft to provide the search service.
Microsoft will use this data as described in this statement or as further limited by
our contractual obligations with our partners. You should refer to the privacy
policies of the third-party services for any questions about how they collect and
use data.
Data passed to destination website. When you select a search result or
advertisement from a Bing search results page and go to the destination
website, the destination website will receive the standard data your browser
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sends to every web site you visit—such as your IP address, browser type and
language, and the host name of the site you came from (in this case,
Sharing data from Bing and Bing-powered experiences with third parties.
We share some de-identified data (data where the identity of a specific person is
not known) from Bing and Bing-powered experiences with selected third parties.
Before we do so, we run the data through a process designed to remove certain
sensitive data that users may have included in the search terms themselves (such
as social security numbers or credit card numbers). Additionally, we require
these third parties to keep the data secure and to not use the data for purposes
other than for which it is provided.
Microsoft Edge
Whenever you use a web browser to access the internet, data about your device
("standard device data") is sent to the websites you visit and online services you
use. Standard device data includes your device's IP address, browser type and
language, access times, and referring website addresses. This data might be
logged on those websites' or online services’ web servers. Which data is logged
and how that data is used depends on the privacy practices of the websites you
visit and web services you use. Certain features in Microsoft Edge, such as when
you open a new tab in the browser, connect you to Microsoft Start Content and
your experiences with such content is covered by the Microsoft Start section of
this privacy statement. Additionally, Microsoft Edge sends a unique browser ID
to certain websites to enable us to develop aggregate data used to improve
browser features and services.
Microsoft Edge for Windows, Linux, and macOS. Microsoft Edge is the default
web browser for Windows 10 and later and is also available on other supported
versions of Windows and macOS.
Data about how you use your browser, such as your browsing history, web form
data, temporary internet files, and cookies, is stored on your device. You can
delete this data from your device using Clear Browsing History.
Microsoft Edge allows you to capture and save content on your device, such as:
Settings and More. Allows you to manage your favorites, downloads,
history, extensions, and collections.
Collections. Allows you to collect text, images, videos, and other content
in a note page in your browser. When you drag content into your
collection, it is cached on your device and can be deleted through your
collection.
Website Pin to Taskbar. Allows you to pin your favorite websites to the
Windows taskbar. Websites will be able to see which of their webpages
you have pinned, so they can provide you a notification badge letting you
know there is something new for you to check out on their websites.
Microsoft collects data necessary to provide features you request in Microsoft
Edge. When signed into Microsoft Edge using your Microsoft personal account
or work or school account, Microsoft Edge will sync your browser data saved on
your device across other signed-in devices. You may choose which browser data
to sync, including your favorites, browsing history, extensions and associated
data, settings, open tabs, autofill form entries (such as your name, address, and
phone number), passwords, payment information, and other data types as they
become available. If you choose to sync extensions that you acquired from thirdparty web stores, a copy of those extensions will be downloaded directly from
those web stores on your synced device(s). If you have turned on Password
Monitor, your saved credentials are hashed, encrypted and sent to Microsoft’s
Password Monitor service to warn you if your credentials were detected as part
of a malicious attack or a breach. Microsoft does not retain this data after the
check is complete. You can disable or configure syncing in the Microsoft Edge
settings.
When you sign into Microsoft Edge with your Microsoft personal account or
work or school account, Microsoft Edge will store your account’s privacy
preferences. Microsoft Edge will use the stored preferences to migrate your
account’s privacy choices across your signed-in devices, including during
Windows device set up or when you sign into Microsoft Edge with your account
on a new device.
Microsoft Edge’s Search and site suggestions uses your search queries and
browsing history to provide you with faster browsing and more relevant search
recommendations. Microsoft Edge sends the information you type into the
browser address bar to the default search provider configured in the address bar
to offer search recommendations as you type each character. You can turn off
these features at any time in the browser settings. In order to provide search
results, Microsoft Edge sends your search queries, standard device information,
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and location (if you have location enabled) to your default search provider. If
Bing is your default search provider, we use this data as described in the Bing
section of this privacy statement.
Microsoft Edge collects and uses data from your search activity across the web,
including websites Microsoft does not own or operate, to improve Microsoft
services, such as Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Bing and Microsoft News. This data
may include the search query, the search results that are displayed to you,
demographic information that is part of the search results, and the interaction
you have with those search results, such as the links you click. Microsoft Edge
takes steps to de-identify the data it collects by removing data that identifies the
person or device from which it was collected and retains this data for one year
from when it is collected. Microsoft does not use this collected data to
personalize or provide ads to you. You can turn off the collection of this data at
any time in the browser settings.
Microsoft Edge downloads content from Microsoft services to enhance your
browsing experiences; for example, when data is downloaded to prerender site
content for faster browsing or to provide content required to power features
you choose to use, such as providing templates for Collections.
You may also choose to share your Microsoft Edge browsing activity to allow us
to personalize Microsoft Edge and Microsoft services like ads, search, shopping,
and news. Microsoft Edge browsing activity includes your history, favorites,
usage data, web content, and other browsing data. For more information about
our advertising privacy policies see the Advertising section of the privacy
statement. In the Microsoft privacy dashboard you can control the use of your
browsing activity for personalized ads in the See ads that interest you setting.
If you disable this setting in the Microsoft privacy dashboard you will continue to
receive personalized web experiences like search and news based on your
browsing activity. You may stop sharing your Microsoft Edge browsing activity
by disabling Allow Microsoft to use your browsing activity including
history, favorites, usage and other browsing data to personalize Microsoft
Edge and Microsoft services like ads, search, shopping and news within Edge
settings. When using Copilot features in the Microsoft Edge sidebar, you can
choose to allow Microsoft Copilot in Edge to access the content of the webpage
you are viewing in order to provide further insights, such as page summaries.
Use of data connected with Copilot experiences is consistent with the Copilot
data use described in the Bing section of this privacy statement.
Microsoft Edge collects required diagnostic data to solve problems and to keep
Microsoft Edge up to date, secure, and operating properly. Required diagnostic
data also helps us improve Microsoft Edge and Windows.
Separate from your search activity data mentioned above, you can choose to
send optional diagnostic data about how you use Microsoft Edge and
information about your browser activity, including browsing history and search
terms to Microsoft to help us improve Microsoft Edge and other Microsoft
products and services. For Microsoft Edge on Windows 10 and later, this
information is provided when you have enabled optional diagnostic data. For
details, see the Windows Diagnostics section of the privacy statement. For
Microsoft Edge on other operating systems, optional diagnostic information is
provided when you enable Improve Microsoft products by sending data
about how you use the browser or Make searches and Microsoft products
better by sending info about websites you visit in Microsoft Edge in the
browser settings.
The diagnostic data collected by Microsoft Edge is transmitted to Microsoft and
is stored with one or more unique identifiers that help us recognize an individual
browser installation on a device and understand the browser's service issues and
use patterns.
Learn more about Microsoft Edge, browsing data, and privacy.
Microsoft Edge on iOS and Android. Microsoft Edge on iOS and Android
devices collects data necessary to provide features you request in Microsoft
Edge. Microsoft also collects required diagnostic data to solve problems and to
keep Microsoft Edge up to date, secure, and operating properly. Required
diagnostic data also helps us improve Microsoft Edge.
Additionally, you may share optional diagnostic data about how you use
Microsoft Edge and information about websites you visit (browsing history) for
personalized experiences on your browser, Windows, and other Microsoft
products and services. This information also helps us improve Microsoft Edge
and other Microsoft products and services. This optional diagnostic data is sent
to us when you enable Share usage data for personalization or Share info
about websites you visit in the browser settings.
The diagnostic data collected by Microsoft Edge is transmitted to Microsoft and
is stored with one or more unique identifiers that help us recognize an individual
user on a device and understand the browser's service issues and use patterns.
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Microsoft Edge uses data from your search activity across the web, including
search activity on websites Microsoft does not own or operate, to improve
Microsoft services like Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Bing, and Microsoft News. The
data Microsoft Edge collects may include personal data; however, Microsoft
Edge takes steps to scrub and de-identify the data. Microsoft Edge does not use
this data to personalize or provide ads for you. You can turn off the collection of
this data at any time in the browser settings. Learn more about Search results
data for product improvement.
For information about the privacy practices of legacy versions Microsoft Edge
(versions 44 and below), see the Web browsers—Microsoft Edge Legacy and
Internet Explorer section of the privacy statement.
Microsoft Translator
Microsoft Translator is a machine translation system and service designed to
automatically translate text and voice input between numerous supported
languages. Microsoft Translator is made available as a stand-alone consumer
app for Android, iOS, and Windows and its service capabilities are also
integrated in a variety of Microsoft products and services, such as Translator
Hub, Translator for Bing, and Translator for Microsoft Edge. Microsoft Translator
processes the text, image, and voice data you submit, as well as device and
usage data. We use this data to provide Microsoft Translator, personalize your
experiences, and improve our products and services. Microsoft has implemented
business and technical measures designed to help de-identify the data you
submit to Microsoft Translator. For example, when we randomly sample text and
audio to improve Microsoft Translator and Microsoft’s speech recognition
technologies, we delete identifiers and certain text, such as email addresses and
some number sequences, detected in the sample that could contain personal
data. To learn more about how Microsoft manages your voice data, see Speech
recognition technologies.
Separate from Microsoft Translator, Microsoft translation services are available as
features in other Microsoft products and services that have different privacy
practices than Microsoft Translator. For more information on the Microsoft Azure
Cognitive Services Translator Text API, Custom Translator, and Translator Speech
API, see the Enterprise and developer products section of this privacy statement.
For the Translate feature in Microsoft 365 apps and Skype, see the Productivity
and communications products section of this privacy statement.
SwiftKey
The Microsoft SwiftKey keyboard and related cloud-based services (collectively,
the “SwiftKey Services”) process data about words you use and how you type
and use this data to learn your writing style and provide personalized
autocorrection and predictive text that adapts to you. We also use this data to
offer a range of other features, such as emoji predictions.
SwiftKey prediction technology learns from the way you use language to build a
personalized language model. This model is an optimized view of the words and
phrases that you use most often in context and reflects your unique writing style.
The model itself contains the words you commonly type arranged in a way that
enables SwiftKey’s algorithms to make predictions, based on text you have
already entered. The model draws from all scenarios in which you use your
keyboard, including when you type while using apps or visiting websites. The
SwiftKey keyboard and model attempt to avoid collecting sensitive data, by not
collecting data from certain fields such as those recognized as containing
password or payment data. SwiftKey Services do not log or store, the data
contained in your model, unless you choose to share your data with us (as
described further below). When you use SwiftKey Services, we also collect device
and usage data. When you sign into your SwiftKey account and agree to share
the following data, we will use de-identified device data, usage data, and model
data to analyze service performance and help improve our products.
The SwiftKey Services also include an optional cloud component called a
SwiftKey Account. If you choose to create a SwiftKey Account, your language
model will be synchronized with the SwiftKey Account cloud service, so you can
benefit from that model on the different devices you use and access additional
services such as prediction synchronization and backup. When you create a
SwiftKey Account, Microsoft will also collect your email address and basic
demographic data. All data collected is transferred to our servers over encrypted
channels. If you are signed in to your SwiftKey account, you can control your
personal data and SwiftKey account preferences at data.swiftkey.com.
As part of your SwiftKey account, you may also opt in to share your language
and/or typing data for the purposes of improving Microsoft products and
services. If you opt-in, SwiftKey may send short snippets of data about what and
how you type and related correction data to our servers for processing. These
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text snippets are used in various automated processes to validate that our
prediction services are working correctly and to make product improvements. To
preserve your privacy, SwiftKey Services de-identify these text snippets, and even
if you have a SwiftKey Account, these text snippets will not be linked to it.
If you sign into your SwiftKey Account and opt-in to share your language and
typing data, Microsoft will process your shared data to look for new patterns of
language usage across our user base. This allows us to improve our basic models
for individual languages. Language and typing data used in this process is
aggregated and any words or combinations of words that might be personal to
individuals or small groups of users are filtered out.
You can withdraw your consent to share your language and typing data for
product improvement at any time in SwiftKey Settings. You can also withdraw
your consent for SwiftKey Services to retain your personal data in SwiftKey
Settings. When you withdraw consent for SwiftKey to retain your personal data,
all personal data collected through your use of the SwiftKey Services will be
deleted.
You may receive occasional notifications on your device alerting you to product
updates and features that may be of interest to you. You can disable these
notifications at any time in the SwiftKey Settings.
When you use the camera feature in SwiftKey, you can choose to enhance your
video and images with third party lens services. Lens is a feature that uses
Augmented Reality (AR) to transform your selfies in a fun way, such as making
you look like your favorite animal. Using the camera in SwiftKey keyboard, you
can select the lens feature that is incorporated in the keyboard to transform your
face and hands. Depending on which lens you choose, your video and images
may be processed to extract information about the location of different areas on
your face and hands. The extracted data is used for the sole purpose of applying
AR effects to your face and hands. None of this data is used to personally
identify you. This data is processed for the duration of the session on your
device only, and then deleted immediately. This data is not sent to SwiftKey or
any third party.
Windows
Windows is a personalized computing environment that enables you to seamlessly
roam and access services, preferences, and content across your computing devices from
phones to tablets to the Surface Hub. Rather than residing as a static software program
on your device, key components of Windows are cloud-based, and both cloud and local
elements of Windows are updated regularly, providing you with the latest
improvements and features. In order to provide this computing experience, we collect
data about you, your device, and the way you use Windows. And because Windows is
personal to you, we give you choices about the personal data we collect and how we
use it. Note that if your Windows device is managed by your organization (such as your
employer or school), your organization may use centralized management tools
provided by Microsoft or others to access and process your data and to control device
settings (including privacy settings), device policies, software updates, data collection
by us or the organization, or other aspects of your device. Additionally, your
organization may use management tools provided by Microsoft or others to access and
process your data from that device, including your interaction data, diagnostic data,
and the contents of your communications and files.
The Windows Settings, formerly known as PC Settings, is an essential component of
Microsoft Windows. It provides a convenient interface for adjusting user preferences,
configuring the operating system, and managing connected devices so that you can
manage user accounts, adjust network settings, and personalize various aspects of
Windows. Windows provides a mechanism for apps to access various device capabilities
such as the device’s camera, microphone, location, calendar, contacts, call history,
messages and more, while controlling access to your personal data. Each capability has
its own privacy settings page in Windows settings, so you can control which apps can
use each capability. Here are some key features of Settings:
1. Customization: You can personalize various aspects of Windows, including the
look and feel, language settings, and privacy options. Windows settings uses your
microphone when controlling the volume, camera when using integrated camera
and location to change brightness at night time to help you customize your
Windows.
2. Peripheral Management: Install and manage peripherals such as printers,
monitors, and external drives.
3. Network Configuration: Adjust networking settings, including Wi-Fi, Ethernet,
cellular and VPN connections and will use physical MAC address, IMEI and mobile
number if device supports cellular.
4. Account Management: Add or remove user accounts, change account settings,
and manage sign-in options.
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5. System-Level Options: Configure display settings, notifications, power options,
manage list of installed apps and more.
6. Privacy & security management: configure your privacy preferences such as
location, collection of diagnostic data etc. Fine-tune which individual apps and
services can access device capabilities by turning them on or off.
For more information about data collection in Windows, see Data collection summary
for Windows. This statement discusses Windows 10 and Windows 11 and references to
Windows in this section relate to those product versions. Earlier versions of Windows
(including Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1) are subject to
their own privacy statements.
Activation
When you activate Windows, a specific product key is associated with the device
on which your software is installed. The product key and data about the software
and your device is sent to Microsoft to help validate your license to the software.
This data may be sent again if there is a need to re-activate or validate your
license. On phones running Windows, device and network identifiers, as well as
device location at the time of the first power-up of the device, are also sent to
Microsoft for the purpose of warranty registration, stock replenishment, and
fraud prevention.
Activity history
Activity history helps keep track of the things you do on your device, such as the
apps and services you use, the files you open, and the websites you browse. Your
activity history is created when using different apps and features such as
Microsoft Edge Legacy, some Microsoft Store apps, and Microsoft 365 apps and
is stored locally on your device.
You can turn settings off or on for storing activity history locally on your device,
and you can also clear your device’s activity history at any time by going to
Privacy > Activity history in the Windows settings app. Learn more about
activity history in Windows.
Advertising ID
Windows generates a unique advertising ID for each person using a device,
which app developers and advertising networks can then use for their own
purposes, including providing relevant advertising in apps. When the advertising
ID is enabled, both Microsoft apps and third-party apps can access and use the
advertising ID in much the same way that websites can access and use a unique
identifier stored in a cookie. Thus, your advertising ID can be used by app
developers and advertising networks to provide more relevant advertising and
other personalized experiences across their apps and on the web. Microsoft
collects the advertising ID for the uses described here only when you choose to
enable the advertising ID as part of your privacy setting.
The advertising ID setting applies to Windows apps using the Windows
advertising identifier. You can turn off access to this identifier at any time by
turning off the advertising ID in the Windows settings app. If you choose to turn
it on again, the advertising ID will be reset and a new identifier will be
generated. When a third-party app accesses the advertising ID, its use of the
advertising ID will be subject to its own privacy policy. Learn more about
advertising ID in Windows.
The advertising ID setting does not apply to other methods of interest-based
advertising delivered by Microsoft or third parties, such as cookies used to
provide interest-based display ads on websites. Third-party products accessed
through or installed on Windows may also deliver other forms of interest-based
advertising subject to their own privacy policies. Microsoft delivers other forms
of interest-based ads in certain Microsoft products, both directly and by
partnering with third-party ad providers. For more information on how Microsoft
uses data for advertising, see the How we use personal data section of this
statement.
Diagnostics
Microsoft collects Windows diagnostic data to solve problems and to keep
Windows up to date, secure, and operating properly. It also helps us improve
Windows and related Microsoft products and services. While the device is
running, diagnostic data is collected and periodically transmitted to Microsoft
and stored along with one or more unique identifiers that can help us recognize
an individual user on an individual device and understand the device's service
issues and use patterns.
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There are two levels of diagnostic and activity data: Required diagnostic data
and Optional diagnostic data. Certain product documentation and other
materials refer to Required diagnostic data as Basic diagnostic data and to
Optional diagnostic data as Full diagnostic data.
If an organization (such as your employer or school) uses Microsoft Entra ID to
manage the account it provides to you and enrolls your device in the Windows
diagnostic data processor configuration, Microsoft’s processing of diagnostic
data in connection with Windows is governed by a contract between Microsoft
and the organization. If an organization uses Microsoft management tools or
engages Microsoft to manage your device, Microsoft and the organization will
use and process diagnostic and error data from your device to allow the
management, monitoring, and troubleshooting of your devices managed by the
organization, and for other purposes of the organization.
Required diagnostic data includes information about your device, its settings
and capabilities, and whether it is performing properly. We collect the following
Required diagnostic data:
Device, connectivity, and configuration data:
Data about the device such as the processor type, OEM
manufacturer, type of battery and capacity, number and type of
cameras, firmware, and memory attributes.
Network capabilities and connection data such as the device’s IP
address, mobile network (including IMEI and mobile operator), and
whether the device is connected to a free or paid network.
Data about the operating system and its configuration such as the
OS version and build number, region and language settings,
diagnostics data settings, and whether the device is part of the
Windows Insider program.
Data about connected peripherals such as model, manufacturer,
drivers, and compatibility data.
Data about the applications installed on the device such as
application name, version, and publisher.
Whether a device is ready for an update and whether there are factors that
may impede the ability to receive updates, such as low battery, limited disk
space, or connectivity through a paid network.
Whether updates complete successfully or fail.
Data about the reliability of the diagnostics collection system itself.
Basic error reporting, which is health data about the operating system and
applications running on your device. For example, basic error reporting
tells us if an application, such as Microsoft Paint or a third-party game,
hangs or crashes.
Optional diagnostic data includes more detailed information about your device
and its settings, capabilities, and device health. Optional diagnostic data may
also include data about the websites you browse, device activity (also sometimes
referred to as usage), and enhanced error reporting that helps Microsoft to fix
and improve products and services for all users. When you choose to send
Optional diagnostic data, Required diagnostic data will always be included, and
we collect the following additional information:
Additional data about the device, connectivity, and configuration, beyond
that collected under Required diagnostic data.
Status and logging information about the health of operating system and
other system components beyond that collected about the update and
diagnostics systems under Required diagnostic data.
App activity, such as which programs are launched on a device, how long
they run, and how quickly they respond to input.
Browser activity, including browsing history and search terms, in Microsoft
browsers (Microsoft Edge or Internet Explorer).
Enhanced error reporting, including the memory state of the device when a
system or app crash occurs (which may unintentionally contain user
content, such as parts of a file you were using when the problem
occurred).
Some of the data described above may not be collected from your device even if
you choose to send Optional diagnostic data. Microsoft minimizes the volume of
Optional diagnostic data it collects from all devices by collecting some of the
data from only a subset of devices (sample). By running the Diagnostic Data
Viewer tool, you can see an icon which indicates whether your device is part of a
sample and also which specific data is collected from your device. Instructions
for how to download the Diagnostic Data Viewer tool can be found in the
Windows settings app under Diagnostics & feedback.
Specific data items collected in Windows diagnostics are subject to change to
give Microsoft flexibility to collect the data needed for the purposes described.
For example, to enable Microsoft to troubleshoot the latest performance issue
impacting users’ computing experience or update a Windows device that is new
to the market, Microsoft may need to collect data items that were not collected
previously. For a current list of data types collected at Required diagnostic
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data and Optional diagnostic data, see Windows Required (Basic level)
diagnostic events and fields or Windows Optional (Full level) diagnostic data.
We provide limited portions of error report information to partners (such as the
device manufacturer) to help them troubleshoot products and services which
work with Windows and other Microsoft product and services. They are only
permitted to use this information to repair or improve those products and
services. We may also share some aggregated, de-identified diagnostic data,
such as general usage trends for Windows apps and features, with selected third
parties. Learn more about diagnostic data in Windows.
Inking and typing Recognition. You also can choose to help Microsoft improve
inking and typing recognition by sending inking and typing diagnostic data. If
you choose to do so, Microsoft will collect samples of the content you type or
write to improve features such as handwriting recognition, autocompletion, next
word prediction, and spelling correction in the many languages used by
Microsoft customers. When Microsoft collects inking and typing diagnostic data,
it is divided into small samples and processed to remove unique identifiers,
sequencing information, and other data (such as email addresses and numeric
values) which could be used to reconstruct the original content or associate the
input to you. It also includes associated performance data, such as changes you
manually make to text, as well as words you've added to the dictionary. Learn
more about improving inking and typing in Windows.
Personalized offers
If you choose to turn on Personalized offers, we will use information about
your device and how you use it, including Windows diagnostic data, in
combination with your account info and data collected by other Microsoft
products and services to offer you personalized tips, ads, and recommendations
to enhance your Windows experiences. Personalized offers include suggestions
on how to customize and optimize Windows, as well as ads and
recommendations for Microsoft and third-party products and services, features,
apps, and hardware to enhance your Windows experiences. For example,
Windows might tell you about new features to help you get the most out of
your device. If you stream movies in your browser, Windows might recommend
an app from the Microsoft Store that streams more efficiently. Or, if you are
running out of space on your hard drive, Windows might recommend you try
OneDrive or purchase hardware to add more storage.
When Personalized offers is on, Windows may use your required diagnostic data
to personalize offers. This data may include information about your device, its
settings and capabilities, and whether it is performing properly. If you have
decided to share optional diagnostic data, the data used to personalize offers
may also include information about how you use apps and features, plus
additional information about the health of your device. We may also use
information about your device and your activity to personalize offers locally on
your device, even when the data does not leave your device. We do not use the
content of crash dumps, speech, typing, or inking input data for personalizing
offers.
In addition to information about your device and how you use it, including
Windows diagnostic data, we may use or combine the following data from other
Microsoft products and your account with Windows diagnostic data to
personalize offers:
Web activity, if you give Microsoft Edge permission to collect your web
activity for personalized search, ads, and news.
Info about your use of other Microsoft products and services, including
Microsoft Bing, Microsoft 365, Xbox, and Microsoft websites, such as
MSN.com.
Subscription and purchase history.
Data from third-party websites which may be shared with Microsoft.
We may also use information about your interactions with tips,
recommendations, and promotions to provide and improve the personalized
offers and similar messages in other Microsoft products.
To manage how data collected by other Microsoft products is used to
personalize offers, you can visit your . The data we use to personalize offers may
change over time, but this page will always have the latest list of data sources so
you can make decisions on how your data is used by Microsoft. In some regions
such as the European Economic Area, turning off Personalized offers on
Windows also stops the use of data from other Microsoft products to
personalize tips, ads, and recommendations in Windows. In other regions, you
can manage how data collected by other Microsoft products is used to
personalize offers by visiting your .
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Contextual data from your device and some basic account data are used to show
you appropriate messaging in Windows regardless of whether the Personalized
offers setting or the use of data from other Microsoft products to personalize
offers are turned off. For example, this data is used to make sure content is in
the correct language and appropriate for your age group.
Personalized offers applies to tips, offers, ads, and recommendations you see in
Windows. Changing this setting will not impact the kinds of offers you may see
in other Microsoft products. You can change this setting at any time by
searching for Personalized offers in the Windows Settings app. .
Tailored experiences
Tailored experiences is being replaced by Personalized offers in more recent
versions of Windows. If you have not installed the latest Windows Update, you
may still see Tailored experiences on your device.
If you choose to turn on Tailored experiences, we will use your Windows
diagnostic data (Required or Optional as you have selected) to offer you
personalized tips, ads, and recommendations to enhance Microsoft experiences.
If you have selected Required as your diagnostic data setting, personalization is
based on information about your device, its settings and capabilities, and
whether it is performing properly. If you have selected Optional, personalization
is also based on information about how you use apps and features, plus
additional information about the health of your device. However, we do not use
information about the websites you browse, the content of crash dumps, speech,
typing, or inking input data for personalization when we receive such data from
customers who have selected Optional. Tailored experiences data is transmitted
to Microsoft and stored with one or more unique identifiers that can help us
recognize an individual user on an individual device and understand the device’s
service issues and use patterns.
Tailored experiences include suggestions on how to customize and optimize
Windows, as well as ads and recommendations for Microsoft and third-party
products and services, features, apps, and hardware for your Windows
experiences. For example, to help you get the most out of your device, we may
tell you about features you may not know about or that are new. If you are
having a problem with your Windows device, you may be offered a solution. You
may be offered a chance to customize your lock screen with pictures, or to be
shown more pictures of the kind you like, or fewer of the ones you do not. If you
stream movies in your browser, you may be recommended an app from the
Microsoft store that streams more efficiently. Or, if you are running out of space
on your hard drive, Windows may recommend you try OneDrive or purchase
hardware to gain more space. .
Feedback Hub
Feedback Hub provides a way to gather feedback on Microsoft products and
installed first party and third-party apps. When you use Feedback Hub, Feedback
Hub periodically reads the installed app list to determine apps for which
feedback can be sent. Feedback Hub determines the apps installed in your
device through public APIs. Additionally, for HoloLens, Feedback Hub uses your
camera and microphone when you choose to share surroundings and audio
input. It also uses picture and document library to access screenshots and screen
recordings that you attach for sending as part of feedback.
You can sign into Feedback Hub using either your personal Microsoft account or
an account provided by your organization (such as your employer or school)
that you use to sign into Microsoft products. Signing in with your work or school
account allows you to submit feedback to Microsoft in association with your
organization. Any feedback you provide whether using your work or school
account or personal Microsoft account may be publicly viewable depending on
the settings configured by your organization’s administrators. Additionally, if
feedback is provided using your work or school account, your feedback can be
viewed through the Feedback Hub or via admin center by your organization’s
administrators.
When you submit feedback to Microsoft about a problem or add more details to
a problem, diagnostic data will be sent to Microsoft to improve Microsoft
products and services. Depending on your Diagnostic data settings in the
Diagnostics & feedback section of the Windows settings, Feedback Hub will
either send diagnostic data automatically or you will have the option to send it
to Microsoft at the time you provide feedback. Based on the category chosen
when submitting feedback, there may be additional personal data collected that
helps to further troubleshoot issues; for example, location related information
when submitting feedback about location services or gaze related information
when submitting feedback on Mixed Reality. Microsoft may also share your
feedback along with the data collected when you submit your feedback with
Microsoft partners (such as a device manufacturer, or firmware developer) to
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help them troubleshoot products and services that work with Windows and
other Microsoft products and services. Learn more about diagnostic data in
Windows.
Get Help
Get Help enables Windows users to get technical support on Windows and other
Microsoft applications. It provides self-service support (such as links to help
articles or directions on how Windows users can solve problems on their own),
Diagnostics, and connecting the customer to a live Microsoft agent as
appropriate. You can sign into the Get Help component with your Microsoft
account to create a consumer support case. Enterprise account users may also
be permitted to create a customer support case depending on their
organization’s support contract, and if enabled by their tenant administrator.
Get Help may suggest you run a Diagnostic. If you consent, diagnostic data is
handled in accordance with the Diagnostics section.
If permitted by system settings, the system microphone may be used to capture
the support question instead of your needing to type. You can control this in the
“Microphone Privacy Settings” in the Windows Settings application. Get Help will
also access your Application List to aid in opening the Feedback Hub to the
correct app if you choose to start the feedback process within Get Help. All
feedback will be entered and controlled by the Feedback Hub, as described in
the Feedback Hub section of this Privacy Statement. Get Help does not use your
location data as part of its services.
Live captions
Live captions transcribe audio to help with the comprehension of spoken
content. Live captions can generate captions from any audio containing speech,
whether the audio is online, audio you have downloaded to your device, or
audio received from your microphone. By default, transcribing microphone
audio is disabled.
Voice data that is captioned is only processed on your device and is not shared
to the cloud or with Microsoft. Learn more about live captions.
Location services and recording
Windows location service. Microsoft operates a location service that helps
determine the precise geographic location of a specific Windows device.
Depending on the capabilities of the device, the device’s location can be
determined with varying degrees of accuracy and may in some cases be
determined precisely. When you have enabled location on a Windows device, or
you have given permission for Microsoft apps to access location information on
non-Windows devices, data about cell towers and Wi-Fi access points and their
locations is collected by Microsoft and added to the location database after
removing any data identifying the person or device from which it was collected.
This de-identified location information is used to improve Microsoft's location
services.
Windows services and features, apps running on Windows, and websites opened
in Windows browsers can access the device’s location through Windows if your
settings allow them to do so. Some features and apps request location
permission when you first install Windows, some ask the first time you use the
app, and others ask every time you access the device’s location. For information
about certain Windows apps that use the device’s location, see the Windows
apps section of this privacy statement.
When an app or feature accesses the device’s location and you are signed in
with a Microsoft account, your Windows device will also upload its location to
the cloud where it is available across your devices to other apps or services that
use your Microsoft account and for which you’ve granted permission. We will
retain only the last known location (each new location replaces the previous
one). Data about a Windows device's recent location history is also stored on the
device even if not using a Microsoft account, and certain apps and Windows
features can access this location history. You can clear your device's location
history at any time in the Windows settings app.
In the Windows settings app, you can also view which apps have access to the
device’s precise location or your device's location history, turn off or on access
to the device’s location for particular apps, or turn off access to the device’s
location. You can also set a default location, which will be used when the
location service can’t detect a more exact location for your device.
There are some exceptions to how your device’s location can be determined that
are not directly managed by the location settings.
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Desktop apps are a specific type of app that won’t ask for separate permission
to discover your device location information and won’t appear in the list that
allows you to choose apps that can use your location. They can be downloaded
from the Microsoft Store, downloaded from the internet, or installed with some
type of media (such as a CD, DVD, or USB storage device). They’re opened using
an .EXE, .MSI, or .DLL file, and they typically run on your device, unlike webbased apps (which run in the cloud). Learn more about third-party desktop apps
and how they may still be able to determine your device’s location when the
device’s location setting is off.
Some web-based experiences or third-party apps that surface on Windows
could use other technologies (such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, cellular modem, etc.) or
cloud-based location services to determine your device’s location with varying
degrees of accuracy even when you’ve turned off the device location setting.
In addition, to facilitate getting help in an emergency, whenever you make an
emergency call, Windows will attempt to determine and share your precise
location, regardless of your location settings. If your device has a SIM card or is
otherwise using cellular service, your mobile operator will have access to your
device’s location. Learn more about location in Windows.
General Location. If you turn on Location services, apps that cannot use your
precise location may still have access to your general location, such as your city,
postal code, or region.
Find my device. The Find my device feature allows an administrator of a
Windows device to find the location of that device from
account.microsoft.com/devices. To enable Find my device, an administrator
needs to be signed in with a Microsoft account and have the location setting
enabled. This feature will work even if other users have denied access to location
for all their apps. When the administrator attempts to locate the device, users
will see a notification in the notification area. Learn more about Find my device
in Windows.
Recording. Some Windows devices have a recording feature that allows you to
capture audio and video clips of your activity on the device, including your
communications with others. If you choose to record a session, the recording will
be saved locally on your device. In some cases, you may have the option to
transmit the recording to a Microsoft product or service that broadcasts the
recording publicly. Important: You should understand your legal
responsibilities before recording and/or transmitting any communication.
This may include obtaining the prior consent of everyone participating in
the conversation or any other authorizations as required. Microsoft is not
responsible for how you use recording features or your recordings.
Narrator
Narrator is a built-in screen reader tool that helps you use Windows without a
screen. Narrator offers intelligent image and page title description and web
page summaries when you encounter undescribed images and ambiguous links.
When you choose to get an image description by pressing Narrator + Ctrl + D,
the image will be sent to Microsoft to perform analysis of the image and
generate a description. Images are used only to generate the description and are
not stored by Microsoft.
When you choose to get page title descriptions by pressing Narrator + Ctrl + D,
the URL of the site you are visiting will be sent to Microsoft to generate the page
title description and to provide and improve Microsoft services, such as Bing
services as described in the Bing section above.
When you choose to get a list of popular links for a web page by pressing
Narrator + double press of S, the URL of the site you are visiting will be sent to
Microsoft to generate the summary of popular links and to provide and improve
Microsoft services, such as Bing.
You can disable these features at any time by going to Narrator>Get image
descriptions, page titles and popular links in Settings in Windows.
You can also send feedback about Narrator to help Microsoft diagnose and
resolve problems with Narrator and improve Microsoft products and services,
such as Windows. Verbal feedback can be submitted at any time in Narrator by
using Narrator Key + Alt + F. When you use this command, the Feedback Hub
app will launch, giving you the opportunity to submit verbal feedback. If you
enable the setting “Help Make Narrator Better” in the Windows settings app and
submit verbal feedback through Feedback Hub, recent device and usage data,
including event trace log (ETL) data, will be submitted along with your verbal
feedback to improve Microsoft products and services, such as Windows.
Phone Link - Link to Windows
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The Phone Link feature lets you link your Android phone with your Microsoft
Account and your iPhone via Bluetooth to connect to your Windows PC. Your
Android device will link with your Microsoft Account and your iPhone will link via
Bluetooth, enabling a variety of cross-device experiences across all your
Windows devices where you are signed in or connected via Bluetooth. You can
use Phone Link to see recent photos from your Android phone on your Windows
device; make and receive live calls from your Android phone on your Windows
device; view and send text messages from your Windows device; view, dismiss,
or perform other actions to your Android phone notifications from your
Windows device; share your phone screen on your Windows device through
Phone Link’s mirroring function; and instantly access Android apps installed on
your Android phone on your Windows device. You can use Phone Link to make
and receive calls from your iPhone, view and send text messages, and view,
dismiss, or perform other actions on your iPhone notification from your
Windows device.
To use Phone Link, Link to Windows must be installed on your Android device.
You may also optionally download Phone Link to your iPhone.
To use Phone Link, you must log into your Microsoft account on the Phone Link
feature on your Windows device and on Link to Windows on your Android
phone or Bluetooth enabled on your iPhone. Your Android phone and your
Windows device must be connected to the internet. Some features will require
you to enable Bluetooth and pair your phone with your PC. To use the Calls
feature, your Android phone must also have Bluetooth enabled.
During setting up your Windows device, you can choose to link your phone with
your Microsoft account. This is done by signing into Link to Windows on your
Android phone, granting permissions and completing the onboarding
experience. Once complete, Link to Windows will sync your data to all your
Windows PCs where you have signed into your Microsoft account. See below for
details on how your data is used.
As part of providing Phone Link’s features to you, Microsoft collects
performance, usage, and device data that includes, for example, the hardware
capabilities of your mobile phone and Windows device, the number and
duration of your sessions on Phone Link, and the amount of time you spent
during setup.
You can unlink your Android phone from your Windows device at any time by
going into your Phone Link settings and choosing to remove your Android
phone. You can do the same from the settings in Link to Windows on your
Android phone. For detailed information, see our support page.
You can unlink your iPhone from your Windows device at any time by going into
Phone Link settings and choosing to remove your iPhone. You can do the same
from your iPhone by going into Settings > Bluetooth > Selecting your PC
name > click on the (i) icon > and choosing Forget This Device. All users can
remove the Bluetooth pairing by disabling the experiences.
Text Messages – Android devices. Phone Link allows you to view text messages
delivered to your Android phone on your Windows device and send text
messages from your Windows device. Only text messages received and sent
within the last 30 days are visible on your Windows device. These text messages
are temporarily stored on your Windows device. We never store your text
messages on our servers or change or delete any text messages on your Android
phone. You can see messages sent via SMS (Short Message Service), MMS
(Multimedia Messaging Service) on Android devices, and messages sent via RCS
(Rich Communication Services) on select Samsung devices on select mobile
operator networks. To provide this functionality, Phone Link accesses the content
of your text messages and the contact information of the individuals or
businesses from whom you are receiving or sending text messages.
Text Messages – iPhones. Phone Link allows you to view text messages
delivered to your iPhone on your Windows devices and send text messages from
your Windows device. Only text messages received and sent within your
Bluetooth session or iMessage are visible on your Windows devices. These text
messages are temporarily stored on your Windows device. We never store your
text messages on our servers or change or delete any text messages on your
iPhone. You can see messages sent via SMS (Short Message Service). To provide
this functionality, Phone Link accesses the content of your text messages and the
contact information of the individuals or businesses from whom you are
receiving or sending text messages.
Calls – Android devices. Phone Link allows you to make and receive calls from
your Android phone on your Windows device. Through Phone Link, you can also
view your recent calls on your Windows device. To activate this feature, you must
enable certain permissions on both your Windows device and Android phone,
such as call logs access and permission to make phone calls from your PC. These
permissions can be revoked at any time under the Phone Link Settings page on
your Windows device and your Android phone's settings. Only calls received and
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dialed within the last 30 days are visible under call logs on your Windows device.
These call details are temporarily stored on your Windows device. We do not
change or delete your call history on your Android phone.
Calls – iPhones. Phone Link allows you to make and receive calls from your
iPhone on your Windows device. Through Phone Link, you can also view your
recent calls on your Windows device. To activate this feature, you must enable
Sync Contacts feature under Bluetooth settings on your iPhone. These call
details are temporarily stored on your Windows device. We do not change or
delete your call history on your iPhone.
Photos – Android devices. Phone Link allows you to copy, share, edit, save, or
delete photos from your Android phone on your Windows device. Only a limited
number of your most recent photos from the Camera Roll and Screenshots
folders on your Android phone will be visible on your Windows device at any
given time. These photos are temporarily stored on your Windows device and as
you take more photos on your Android phone, we remove the temporary copies
of the older photos from your Windows device. We never store your photos on
our servers or change or delete any photos on your Android phone.
Notifications – Android devices. Phone Link allows you to view your Android
phone’s notifications on your Windows device. Through Phone Link, you can
read and dismiss your Android phone’s notifications from your Windows device
or perform other actions related to the notifications. To activate this Phone Link
feature, you must enable certain permissions, such as sync notifications, on both
your Windows device and Android phone. These permissions can be revoked at
any time under the Phone Link Settings page on your Windows device and your
Android phone’s settings. For detailed information, see our support page.
Notifications – iPhones. Phone Link allows you to view your iPhone’s
notifications on your Windows device. Through Phone Link, you can read and
dismiss your iPhone’s notifications from your Windows device or perform other
actions related to the notifications. To activate this Phone Link feature, you must
enable certain permissions such as sync notifications, on both your Windows
device and iPhone. These permissions can be revoked at any time under the
Phone Link Settings page on your Windows device and your iPhone’s Bluetooth
settings.
Phone Screen Mirroring – Android devices. On supported devices, Phone
Link allows you to view your Android phone’s screen on your Windows device.
Your Android phone screen will be visible on your Windows device as a pixel
stream and any audio that you enable on your Android phone screen while it is
linked to your Windows device through Phone Link will play through your
Android phone.
Apps mirroring – Android devices. On supported devices, Phone Link allows
you to use your Android apps that are installed on your Android phone on your
Windows device. For example, you can launch a music app in your Windows
session and listen to audio from that app on your PC speakers. Microsoft collects
a list of your installed Android apps and recent activity to provide the service
and show you your most recently used apps. Microsoft does not store what apps
you have installed or any of the information displayed by the app in your
experience with it.
Content transfer – Android devices. On supported devices, Phone Link allows
you to copy and paste contents such as files, documents, photos, etc. between
your Android phone and your Windows device. You can transfer content from
your Android phone to your Windows device and from your Windows device to
your Android phone by drag and drop contents between the devices.
Instant Hotspot – Android devices. On supported devices, Link to Windows
enables users to share mobile hotspot information with their paired PC over
secure Bluetooth communication. Your PC can then be connected to the internet
through the Windows network flyout. Please note mobile data charges may
apply depending on the mobile data plan you have.
Contacts sync – Android devices. Link to Windows allows you to sync your
Android contacts into the Microsoft cloud to access them in other Microsoft
products and services. You can enable this feature by going into Link to
Windows settings and enabling “Contacts sync” feature. Your contacts
information is stored online and associated with your Microsoft account. You
may choose to disable sync and delete these contacts at any time. Learn more.
Contacts sync – iPhone. Phone Link allows you to sync your contacts from your
iPhone to access them for messaging and calling. You can enable this feature by
going into Bluetooth settings on your iPhone and toggle on Sync Contacts
under your PC name after connecting your iPhone to Phone Link. You may
choose to disable syncing at any time by toggling off Sync Contacts.
Text-to-voice. Phone Link features include accessibility functionality such as
text-to-voice. You can activate a text-to-voice feature, which allows you to hear
the contents of a text message or notification as audio. If you activate this
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feature, your text messages and notifications will be read out loud as they are
received.
Office Enterprise – Android Devices. Link to Windows allows you to insert
photos into web and desktop versions of select Microsoft 365 apps, such as
PowerPoint, Excel, and Word directly from your mobile phone. This requires your
IT Administrator to have enabled Optional Connected Experiences for Microsoft
Office applications and you will need to associate your mobile device with your
work or school account and provide Photos permission to your account. After
onboarding, your session will last 15 minutes to enable you to transfer your
Photos from your mobile device. To use this feature again, you will need to scan
your QR code. Link to Windows does not collect your work or school account
information or information about your Enterprise. In order to provide this
service, Microsoft uses a cloud service to relay your files for the purpose of
inserting the photos into web and desktop version of select Microsoft 365 apps,
such as PowerPoint, Excel, and Word files.
Cross-device experiences
Cross-device experiences in Windows allow you to access your mobile device
from your PC using your Microsoft Account. These can be managed under
“Mobile Devices” in the Bluetooth & Devices section in your Windows PC
Settings. As part of providing these features, Microsoft collects performance
usage and device data, including information about the hardware capabilities of
your mobile and Windows devices. You can turn this feature on or off at any
time in your Windows PC Settings.
Use your mobile device as a connected camera. This feature allows you to use
your mobile device’s camera in apps or products on Windows that support
camera functionality. You can enable this feature under “Mobile Devices” in the
Bluetooth & Devices section in the Settings on your PC. Microsoft does not
record or store your camera sessions or any of the information displayed by your
camera in any of the applications or products.
Get new photo notifications from your mobile device. This feature allows you
to receive notifications from your linked mobile device on your Windows PC.
These photos are temporarily stored on your Windows PC while you are editing
or opening those photos. You will need to initiate saving to your PC to store
those photos until you decide to delete them. We never store your photos on
our servers or change or delete any photos on your mobile device.
Show your mobile device in File Explorer. This feature allows you to access
your mobile device’s files in File Explorer. You can enable this feature under
“Mobile Devices” in the Bluetooth & Devices section in the Settings on your PC.
Microsoft will not store your file contents in its services.
Security and safety features
Device encryption. Device encryption helps protect the data stored on your
device by encrypting it using BitLocker Drive Encryption technology. When
device encryption is on, Windows automatically encrypts the drive Windows is
installed on and generates a recovery key. The BitLocker recovery key for your
personal device is automatically backed up online in your personal Microsoft
OneDrive account. Microsoft doesn't use your individual recovery keys for any
purpose.
Malicious Software Removal Tool. The Malicious Software Removal Tool
(MSRT) runs on your device at least once per month as part of Windows Update.
MSRT checks devices for infections by specific, prevalent malicious software
("malware") and helps remove any infections found. When the MSRT runs, it will
remove the malware listed on the Microsoft Support website if the malware is on
your device. During a malware check, a report will be sent to Microsoft with
specific data about malware detected, errors, and other data about your device.
If you do not want MSRT to send this data to Microsoft, you can disable MSRT's
reporting component.
Microsoft Family. Parents can use Microsoft Family Safety to understand and
set boundaries on how their child is using their device. Please carefully review
the information at Microsoft Family Safety if choosing to create or join a family
group. If you live in a region that requires permission to create an account to
access Microsoft services, you may be prompted to request or give parental
consent. If a user is under the statutory age in your region, during the
registration process they will be prompted to request consent from a parent or
guardian by entering an adult’s email. When Family activity reporting is turned
on for a child, Microsoft will collect details about how the child uses their device
and provide parents with reports of that child's activities. Activity reports are
routinely deleted from Microsoft servers.
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Microsoft Defender SmartScreen and Smart App Control. Microsoft strives to
help protect your device and passwords from unsafe apps, files, and web
content.
Microsoft Defender SmartScreen helps protect you when using our services by
identifying threats to you, your device, and your passwords. These threats might
include potentially unsafe apps or web content that Microsoft Defender
SmartScreen discovers while checking websites you visit, files you download, and
apps you install and run. When Microsoft Defender SmartScreen checks web and
app content, data about the content and your device is sent to Microsoft,
including the full web address of the content. When additional analysis is
needed to identify security threats, information about the suspicious website or
app—such as content displayed, sounds played, and application memory—may
be sent to Microsoft. This data will only be used for security purposes in
detecting, protecting against, and responding to security incidents, identity theft,
fraud, or other malicious, deceptive, or illegal activities. If Microsoft Defender
SmartScreen detects that content is potentially unsafe, you will see a warning in
place of the content. Microsoft Defender SmartScreen can be turned on or off in
the Windows Security app.
Where supported, Smart App Control helps check software that is installed and
runs on your device to determine if it is malicious, potentially unwanted, or
poses other threats to you and your device. On a supported device, Smart App
Control starts in evaluation mode and the data we collect for Microsoft Defender
SmartScreen such as file name, a hash of the file’s contents, the download
location, and the file’s digital certificates, is used to help determine whether your
device is a good candidate to use Smart App Control for additional security
protection. Smart App Control is not enabled and will not block during
evaluation mode. Some devices may not be good candidates if Smart App
Control would otherwise get in the way and interfere with a user’s otherwise
intended and legitimate tasks – for instance, developers who use a lot of
unsigned files. If you are a good candidate for Smart App Control, then it will
automatically be turned on, and will provide additional protection to your device
beyond Microsoft Defender SmartScreen. Otherwise, Smart App Control will be
unavailable and permanently turned off. If your device is unsupported or not a
good candidate for Smart App Control, Microsoft Defender SmartScreen will
continue to help protect your device. When Smart App Control is enabled and
identifies an app as malicious, potentially unwanted, or unknown and unsigned,
it will block and notify you prior to opening, running, or installing the app. Learn
more about Smart App Control.
When either Microsoft Defender SmartScreen or Smart App Control checks a file,
data about that file is sent to Microsoft, including the file name, a hash of the
file’s contents, the download location, and the file’s digital certificates.
Smart App Control can be turned on or off in the Windows Security app.
Microsoft Defender Antivirus. Microsoft Defender Antivirus looks for malware
and other unwanted software, potentially unwanted apps, and other malicious
content on your device. Microsoft Defender Antivirus is automatically turned on
to help protect your device if no other antimalware software is actively
protecting your device. If Microsoft Defender Antivirus is turned on, it will
monitor the security status of your device. When Microsoft Defender Antivirus is
turned on, or is running because Limited Periodic Scanning is enabled, it will
automatically send reports to Microsoft that contain data about suspected
malware and other unwanted software, potentially unwanted apps, and other
malicious content, and it may also send files that could contain malicious
content, such as malware or unknown files for further inspection. If a report is
likely to contain personal data, the report is not sent automatically, and you'll be
prompted before it is sent. You can configure Microsoft Defender Antivirus not
to send reports and suspected malware to Microsoft.
Speech, Voice Activation, Inking, and Typing
Speech. Microsoft provides both a device-based speech recognition feature and
cloud-based (online) speech recognition technologies.
Turning on the Online speech recognition setting lets apps use Microsoft cloudbased speech recognition. Additionally, in Windows 10, the Online speech
recognition setting enables your ability to use dictation within Windows.
Turning on speech while setting up a HoloLens device or installing Windows
Mixed Reality allows you to use your voice for commands, dictation, and app
interactions. Both device-based speech recognition and online speech
recognition settings will be enabled. With both settings enabled, while your
headset is turned on the device will always be listening to your voice input and
will send your voice data to Microsoft’s cloud-based speech recognition
technologies.
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When you use cloud-based speech recognition technologies from Microsoft,
whether enabled by the Online speech recognition setting or when you interact
with HoloLens or voice typing, Microsoft collects and uses your voice recordings
to provide the speech recognition service by creating a text transcription of the
spoken words in the voice data. Microsoft will not store, sample, or listen to your
voice recordings without your permission. To learn more about how Microsoft
manages your voice data, see Speech recognition technologies.
You can use device-based speech recognition without sending your voice data
to Microsoft. However, Microsoft cloud-based speech recognition technologies
provide more accurate recognition than the device-based speech recognition.
When the online speech recognition setting is turned off, speech services that
do not rely on the cloud and only use device-based recognition—like live
captions, Narrator, or voice access—will still work and Microsoft won’t collect
any voice data.
You can turn off online speech recognition at any time. This will stop any apps
that rely on the Online speech recognition setting from sending your voice data
to Microsoft. If you are using a HoloLens or Windows Mixed Reality headset, you
can also turn off device-based speech recognition at any time. This will stop the
device from listening for your voice input. Learn more about speech recognition
in Windows.
Voice Activation. Windows provides supported apps with the ability to respond
and take action based on voice keywords that are specific to that app.
If you’ve given permission for an app to listen for voice keywords, Windows will
be actively listening to the microphone for these keywords. Once a keyword is
recognized, the app will have access to your voice recording, can process the
recording, take action, and respond, such as with a spoken answer. The app may
send the voice recording to its own services in the cloud to process the
commands. Each app should ask you for permission before accessing voice
recordings.
Additionally, voice activation can be enabled when the device is locked. If
enabled, the relevant app will continue listening to the microphone for voice
keywords when you have locked your device and can activate for anyone who
speaks near the device. When the device is locked, the app will have access to
the same set of capabilities and information as when the device is unlocked.
You can turn off voice activation at any time. Learn more about voice activation
in Windows.
Even when you’ve turned off voice activation, some third-party desktop apps
and services could still be listening to the microphone and collect your voice
input. Learn more about third-party desktop apps and how they may still be
able to access your microphone even with these settings turned off.
Voice typing. In Windows 11, dictation has been updated and renamed as voice
typing. Voice typing may use both device-based and online speech recognition
technologies to power its speech-to-text transcription service. You can also
choose to contribute voice clips to help improve voice typing. If you choose not
to contribute voice clips, you can still use voice typing. You can change your
selection anytime in the voice typing settings. Microsoft will not store, sample, or
listen to your voice recordings without your permission. Learn more about
Microsoft and your voice data.
Voice access. Windows enables everyone, including people with mobility
disabilities, to control their PC and author text using their voice. For example,
voice access supports scenarios like opening and switching between apps,
browsing the web, and reading and authoring mail. Voice access leverages
modern, on-device speech recognition to accurately recognize speech and is
supported without an internet connection. When a user invokes voice access it
uses the device microphone. .
Inking & Typing Personalization. Your typed and handwritten words are
collected to provide you with a custom word list, better character recognition to
help you type and write on your device, and text suggestions that appear as you
type or write.
You can turn off inking & typing personalization at any time. This will delete your
customer word list stored on your device. If you turn it back on, you’ll need to
recreate your custom word list. Learn more about inking & typing
personalization in Windows.
Sync and backup settings
When you sign into Windows with your Microsoft account, Windows can store
your settings, files, and device configuration data in Microsoft’s servers.
Windows will only use the stored settings, files, and device configuration data to
make it easier for you to migrate your experience on a different device.
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You can turn off this feature and stop Windows from storing your settings, files,
and configuration data from the Windows settings. You can delete the data that
has been backed up previously to your Microsoft account, by visiting your
Microsoft Account Devices page.
.
Update Services
Update Services for Windows includes Windows Update and Microsoft Update.
Windows Update is a service that provides you with software updates for
Windows software and other supporting software, such as drivers and firmware
supplied by device manufacturers. Microsoft Update is a service that provides
you with software updates for other Microsoft software such as Microsoft 365.
Windows Update automatically downloads Windows software updates to your
device. You can configure Windows Update to automatically install these
updates as they become available (recommended) or have Windows notify you
when a restart is required to finish installing updates. Apps available through the
Microsoft Store are automatically updated through the Microsoft Store, as
described in the Microsoft Store section of this privacy statement.
Web browsers—Microsoft Edge Legacy and Internet Explorer
This section applies to legacy versions of Microsoft Edge (versions 44 and
below). See the Microsoft Edge section of the Privacy Statement for information
about non-legacy versions of Microsoft Edge.
Microsoft Edge is the default web browser for Windows. Internet Explorer, the
legacy browser from Microsoft, is also available in Windows. Whenever you use
a web browser to access the internet, data about your device ("standard device
data") is sent to the websites you visit and online services you use. Standard
device data includes your device's IP address, browser type and language, access
times, and referring website addresses. This data might be logged on those
websites' web servers. Which data is logged and how that data is used depends
on the privacy practices of the websites you visit and web services you use.
Additionally, Microsoft Edge sends a unique browser ID to certain websites to
enable us to develop aggregate data used to improve browser features and
services.
Additionally, data about how you use your browser, such as your browsing
history, web form data, temporary internet files, and cookies, is stored on your
device. You can delete this data from your device using Delete Browsing History.
Microsoft Edge allows you to capture and save content on your device, such as:
Web note. Allows you to create ink and text annotations on the webpages
you visit, and clip, save, or share them.
Active reading. Allows you to create and manage reading lists, including
websites or documents.
Hub. Allows you to easily manage your reading lists, favorites, downloads,
and history all in one area.
Website Pin to Taskbar. Allows you to pin your favorite websites to the
Windows taskbar. Websites will be able to see which of their webpages
you have pinned, so they can provide you a notification badge letting you
know there is something new for you to check out on their websites.
Some Microsoft browser information saved on your device will be synced across
other devices when you sign in with your Microsoft account so you can access
your data on all your signed-in browsers across your devices. For instance, in
Internet Explorer, this information includes your browsing history and favorites;
and in Microsoft Edge, it includes your favorites, reading lists, autofill form
entries (such as your name, address, and phone number), and may include data
for extensions that you have installed. As an example, if you sync your Microsoft
Edge reading list across devices, copies of the content you choose to save to
your reading list will be sent to each synced device for later viewing. You can
disable syncing in Internet Explorer by going to Start > Settings >
Accounts > Sync your settings. (For more information, see the Sync
settings section of this privacy statement.) You can also disable syncing of
Microsoft Edge browser information by turning off the sync option in Microsoft
Edge Settings.
Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer use your search queries and browsing
history to provide you with faster browsing and more relevant search results.
These features include:
Search suggestions in Internet Explorer automatically sends the
information you type into the browser address bar to your default search
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provider (such as Bing) to offer search recommendations as you type each
character.
Search and site suggestions in Microsoft Edge automatically sends the
information you type into the browser address bar to Bing (even if you
have selected another default search provider) to offer search
recommendations as you type each character.
You can turn off these features at any time. In order to provide search results,
Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer send your search queries, standard device
information, and location (if you have location enabled) to your default search
provider when the app is used. If Bing is your default search provider, we use
this data as described in the Bing section of this privacy statement.
Windows apps
A number of Microsoft apps are included with Windows and others are available
in Microsoft Store. Some of those apps include:
Maps app. The Maps app provides location-based services and uses Bing
services to process your searches within the Maps app. When the Maps app has
access to your location, and you have enabled location-based services in
Windows, when you use the “@” key to initiate a search in supported text boxes
in Windows apps, Bing services collects the text you type after the “@” key to
provide location-based suggestions. To learn more about these Bing-powered
experiences, see the Bing section of this privacy statement. When the Maps app
has access to your location, even when the app is not in use, Microsoft may
collect de-identified location data from your device to improve Microsoft
services. You can disable the Maps app's access to your location by turning off
the location service or turning off the Maps app's access to the location service.
You can keep track of your favorite places and recent map searches in the Maps
app. Your favorite places and search history will be included as search
suggestions. If you grant the Maps app access to your camera, you’ll be able to
capture the location of where your photos took place – for instance, a photo of
your car will also tell you where your car is parked. You can also share your
location with other people in your contacts. If you're signed in with your
Microsoft account, your favorite places, search history, and certain app settings
will be synced across other devices and services. For more information, see the
Sync and backup settings section of this privacy statement.
Camera app. If you allow the Camera app to use your location, location data is
embedded in the photos and videos you take with your device. Other descriptive
data, such as camera model and the date that the picture or video was taken, is
also embedded in photos and videos. If you choose to share a photo or video,
any embedded data will be accessible to the people and services you share with.
Once enabled, you can always disable the Camera app's access to your location
by turning off all access to the location service in your device's Settings menu or
turning off the Camera app's access to the location service.
When the Camera app is open, it shows rectangles detected by the selected
camera for areas in the image that are potentially used for image enhancement.
The Camera app does not retain any image enhancing data. You can always
change your camera access settings in the Windows Settings menu. The Camera
app uses various device capabilities such as location, camera, microphone, video,
and picture library. Please visit Microsoft Store to learn more.
Photos app. There are two versions of the Photos app available. The updated
Photos app includes features like iCloud integration and local and cloud folder
views. The previous legacy version of the Photos app includes features like Video
Editor, the People tab, and Albums. You are using the updated Photos app if the
“About” section in the Photos app settings indicates the app is the “Updated”
Photos app. In some cases, a user may have both the updated Photos app and
the Photos legacy version downloaded on their device.
The updated Photos app helps you organize, view, and share your photos and
videos. For example, the Photos app presents different ways to group photos
and videos by name, date taken, or date modified, and also in folders where
those files are stored, such as stored locally on your device or synced to your
device from OneDrive, iCloud, and other cloud services. The app also allows you
to move, copy or upload files to different locations on your computer or to
OneDrive. The All Photos tab displays your locally stored or synced photos and
videos according to the date they are taken. The Favorites tab lets you view
photos and videos you previously liked or favorited. The Folders tab allows you
to view photos or videos by their storage location. There are also tabs where you
can see your photos and videos from available cloud services (such as OneDrive
and other third-party services) that you have synced to your device.
The Photos legacy app also helps you organize, view, and share your photos and
videos. However, if you are using the Photos legacy app, you may see other
features that are not available in the newer version of the Photos app, including
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Collections, Albums, Video Editor and the People setting. The Collection tab
displays photos and videos according to the date they are taken. The Albums
tab helps you organize your photos and videos by location and common tags.
The Video Editor allows you to edit, create, and share videos.
The People setting can be enabled on the Photos legacy app's Settings page and
in the People tab of the app. When enabled, the Photos legacy app will use face
grouping technology to organize your photos and videos into groups. The
grouping feature can detect faces in a photo or video and determine whether
they are visually similar to faces in other photos and videos in your local photo
collection. You can choose to associate a facial grouping with a contact from
your People app.
When enabled in the Photos legacy app, your groupings will be stored on your
device for as long as you choose to keep the groupings or the photos or videos.
If the People setting is turned on, there will be a prompt to allow the Photos
legacy app to continue to permit facial groupings after three years of noninteraction with the Photos legacy app. At any time, you can go to the Settings
page in the Photos legacy app to turn the People setting on or off. Turning the
feature off will remove facial grouping data from the Photos legacy app but will
not remove your photos or videos. Learn more about the Photos legacy app
and facial grouping.
If you choose to share a photo or video using the Photos app or the Photos
legacy app, any embedded data (such as location, camera model, and date) will
be accessible to the people and services you share the photo or video with.
People app. The People app lets you see and interact with all your contacts in
one place. When you add an account to the People app, your contacts from your
account will be automatically added to the People app. You can add other
accounts to the People app, including your social networks (such as Facebook
and Twitter) and email accounts. When you add an account, we tell you what
data the People app can import or sync with the particular service and let you
choose what you want to add. Other apps you install may also sync data to the
People app, including providing additional details to existing contacts. When
you view a contact in the People app, information about your recent interactions
with the contact (such as emails and calendar events, including from apps that
the People app syncs data from) will be retrieved and displayed to you. You can
remove an account from the People app at any time.
Mail and Calendar app. The Mail and Calendar app allows you to connect all
your email, calendars, and files in one place, including those from third-party
email and file storage providers. The app provides location-based services, such
as weather information in your calendar, but you can disable the app’s use of
your location. When you add an account to the Mail and Calendar app, your
email, calendar items, files, contacts, and other settings from your account will
automatically sync to your device and to Microsoft servers. At any time, you can
remove an account or make changes to the data that’s synced from your
account. To configure an account, you must provide the app with the account
credentials (such as user name and password), which will be sent over the
internet to the third-party provider’s server. The app will first attempt to use a
secure (SSL) connection to configure your account but will send this information
unencrypted if your email provider does not support SSL. If you add an account
provided by an organization (such as a company email address), the owner of
the organizational domain can implement certain policies and controls (for
example, multi-factor authentication or the ability to remotely wipe data from
your device) that may affect your use of the app. This app uses your device
capabilities such as location, camera. Please visit Microsoft Store to learn more.
Windows Operator Messages (previously Microsoft Messaging) app. The
Windows Operator Messages app receives and shows account-related SMS texts
from your mobile operator about your data plan (such as your billing and data
limits) on your PC or device. These messages are stored locally on your device.
From your device, you can also access, view, and delete these messages. This
app uses your device capabilities such as Contacts. Please visit Microsoft Store
on Windows to learn more.
The Clock app is your hub for time management and focus on Windows. When
users sign in with their Microsoft account they can enable Microsoft To Do which
is a cloud connected experience. When the user turns on Focus Session, session
data is stored locally and user can clear it by going to the clock settings page.
Additionally, Focus Sessions supports connecting to Spotify accounts to listen to
ambient audio to help users focus. Visit Microsoft Store to learn more.
Microsoft Journal is a Windows application specifically designed for touchfocused, pen-capable devices such as tablets and 2-in-1 devices. It provides
users with freeform personal note-taking experience. The app leverages artificial
intelligence (AI) and machine learning to better recognize your handwriting that
processes data locally on your device. When connected to Microsoft 365
(subscription required), users can seamlessly access their M365 calendar and
contacts within the app. All user created content is automatically saved at the
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default save location in the document library for future reference. Journal lets
you access photos library and the device camera and microphone so that you
can add them to a workbook. Learn about Journal app here or visit Microsoft
Store to learn more.
The Mobile plans app helps you get online easily and in more places on your
Windows 10 PC and 11 LTE devices. Upon signing up for a data plan on your
device, it establishes a connection with the mobile operator, enabling you to
complete purchases through the mobile operator’s online portal. You will need a
supported SIM card in order to use this app. The Mobile Plan App will use your
IMEI, IMSI, EID, ICCID, and Country (coarse location determined by Cellular
Network ID or Wi-Fi Reverse IP) to determine which mobile operators are
available in your area. The mobile operator may send notifications to users
through the Mobile Plans App. This app uses your device’s capabilities such as
its camera and microphone. Visit Microsoft Store to learn more.
Microsoft PC Manager is available in select regions and is a desktop tool aimed
at boosting your PC’s performance. Based on your request, PC Manager will scan
your device, and allows you to delete unneeded or temporary documents,
optimize cache, stop or recover from unauthorized changes, or use other
features such as health check, one-click boost, storage clean-up, file and pop-up
management, and protection of your default settings.
PC Manager will block pop-ups based on ad-block rules and the pop-up
windows selected by you through custom block. If you agree to join the
“Microsoft PC Manager Pop-up Plan,” when you block pop-up windows through
custom block, you can help us optimize the pop-up management feature of
Microsoft PC Manager by taking screenshots of the pop-up and sending them to
Microsoft. Microsoft does not collect information other than screenshots,
Windows title, and the class of Windows. Screenshots sent are only retained for
a short period of time and regularly deleted. You can manage your Pop-Up Plan
preferences through the PC Manager settings at anytime. The feedback feature
in PC Manager may also process personal data if you include it in the feedback
you provide to Microsoft. The feedback from users is regularly deleted after
processing. Visit Microsoft Store to learn more.
The Snipping Tool is a handy utility in Windows that uses your microphone and
pictures library to capture and store screenshots and screen recordings. The
Snipping Tool includes a Text Action feature, which uses built-in optical character
recognition (OCR) support. You can select and copy text directly from images
using OCR. Additionally, you can use the Text Action feature to redact sensitive
information from captured text. With clipboard integration items copied from
the Snipping Tool are also copied to your clipboard. If you enable clipboard
history across devices, the copied content can be used seamlessly across
different devices. Users can manage their clipboard and snipping preferences
through the Windows settings. Visit Microsoft Store to learn more.
The Sound Recorder app is a versatile tool designed for capturing audio via
your microphone in various scenarios. While recording, you can mark key
moments to easily locate important sections later. You can also trim, adjust
volume levels, or apply other modifications as needed, and playback your
recordings. Your recordings are autosaved and stored in your Documents folder
for easy access, and you can share your recorded audio with friends and family.
Visit Microsoft Store to learn more.
Microsoft Clipchamp is a video editor designed to make video creation easy. It
allows users to combine videos, images, and audio files, as well as add text and
effects, and then save the finished video to their device, or store their videos in
their personal OneDrive via their Microsoft account. Users can also add stock
videos and stock music or sound effects, stickers, graphical elements,
backgrounds, and more. Users can choose to allow Clipchamp to access their
camera and microphone to record videos directly from their device. To provide a
better experience, such as which language to display to you, Clipchamp will
collect your imprecise location. Users can access Clipchamp with a personal or
family Microsoft account via the Clipchamp app for Windows 10 or Windows 11
and in the Edge or Chrome browser at https://app.clipchamp.com.
Media Player is the default built-in player of multimedia (audio and video) files.
When you choose to open a multimedia file, Media Player will read the contents
of that file. When you open Media Player, it will read the contents of your Music
library and Video library folders to populate its own Music library and Video
library pages inside the Media Player to help you organize, view, and play
multimedia content.
To enrich your experience when playing music, Media Player will automatically
attempt to display artist art and album art for the content you play and the
content in your music library. To provide this information, Media Player sends an
information request to Microsoft containing standard device data, such as your
device IP address, device software version, your regional and language settings,
and an identifier for the content. If desired, this feature can be disabled on the
app’s Settings page.
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Movies and TV. Microsoft Movies & TV allows you to rent or buy movies and TV
episodes, and play them on your device.
To help you discover content that may interest you, Movies & TV will collect data
about what movies and TV shows you watch, including the length of play and
any ratings you give.
Movies & TV can also display and play local video files stored on your PC. To do
this, it needs access to the video library on your device.
Windows Media Player Legacy. When you use Windows Media Player Legacy,
it can read media content such as video, audio, and picture files which allows
you to play CDs and other digital content (such as video and audio files), rip
CDs, and manage your media library. To enrich your experience when you play
content in your library, Windows Media Player Legacy displays related media
information, such as album title, song titles, album art, artist, and composer. To
augment your media information, Windows Media Player Legacy will send a
request to Microsoft which contains standard computer information, an
identifier for the media content, and the media information already contained in
your Windows Media Player Legacy library (including information you may have
edited or entered yourself) so that Microsoft can recognize the track and then
return additional information that is available.
Windows Media Player Legacy also allows you to play back content that is
streamed to you over a network. To provide this service, it is necessary for
Windows Media Player Legacy to communicate with a streaming media server.
These servers are typically operated by non-Microsoft content providers. During
playback of streaming media, Windows Media Player Legacy will send a log to
the streaming media server or other web server(s) if the streaming media server
requests it. The log includes such details as: connection time, IP address,
operating system version, Windows Media Player Legacy version, Player
identification number (Player ID), date, and protocol. To protect your privacy,
Windows Media Player Legacy defaults to sending a Player ID that is different for
each session.
Windows Hello
Windows Hello provides instant access to your devices through biometric
authentication. If you turn it on, Windows Hello uses your face, fingerprint, or iris
to identify you based on a set of unique points or features that are extracted
from the image and stored on your device as a template—but it does not store
the actual image of your face, fingerprint, or iris. Biometric verification data
that's used when you sign in doesn't leave your device. Your biometric
verification data will remain on your device until you remove it. However, after a
significant period of Windows Hello inactivity, you will be prompted to confirm
that you want to continue to store your biometric verification data. You can
delete your biometric verification data from within Settings. Learn more about
Windows Hello.
Windows Search
Windows Search lets you search your stuff and the web from one place. If you
choose to use Windows Search to search "your stuff," it will provide results for
items on your personal OneDrive, your OneDrive for Business if so enabled,
other cloud storage providers to the extent supported by those third-party
providers, and on your device. If you choose to use Windows Search to search
the web, or get search suggestions with Windows Search, your search results will
be powered by Bing and we will use your search query as described in the
Bing section of this privacy statement. Learn more about search in Windows.
Entertainment and related services
Entertainment and Related Services power rich experiences and enable you to access a
variety of content, applications and games.
Xbox
The Xbox network is the online gaming and entertainment service from
Microsoft that consists of software and enables online experiences across
different platforms. This service lets you find and play games, view content, and
connect with friends on Xbox and other gaming and social networks.
When you sign up for an Xbox profile, we assign you a gamertag (a public
nickname) and a unique identifier. When you sign in on Xbox devices, apps, and
services, the data we collect about your use is stored using these unique
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identifier(s).
Xbox consoles are devices you can use to find and play games, movies, music,
and other digital entertainment. When you sign in to Xbox experiences—in apps
or on a console—we also assign a unique identifier to your device. When your
Xbox console is connected to the internet, for instance, and you sign in to the
console, we identify which console and which version of the console’s operating
system you’re using.
Data we collect about your use of Xbox services, games, apps, and consoles
includes:
When you sign in and sign out of Xbox, any purchases you make, and
content you obtain.
Which games you play and apps you use, your game progress,
achievements, play time per game, and other play statistics.
Performance data about Xbox consoles, Xbox Game Pass and other Xbox
apps, the Xbox network, connected accessories, and your network
connection, including any software or hardware errors.
Content you add, upload, or share through the Xbox network, including
text, pictures, and video you capture in games and apps.
Social activity, including chat data and interactions with other gamers, and
connections you make (friends you add and people who follow you) on the
Xbox network.
If you sign in to use Xbox on another device capable of accessing the Xbox
network, and that device includes a storage device (hard drive or memory unit),
usage data will be stored on the storage device and sent to Microsoft the next
time you sign in to Xbox, even if you’ve been playing offline.
Data we collect enables us to provide you with our services and with curated
experiences. This includes connecting you to games, content, and services, as
well as presenting you with offers, discounts, and recommendations. To change
your settings for these recommendations, visit Xbox online safety and privacy
settings page.
Camera and Microphone. While using Xbox, players can use the device’s
capabilities such as the microphone, camera and screen recording to improve
their gaming experience. When an Xbox game is played in the Windows Game
Bar, the camera and microphone may be used, including to read photos and
videos and to capture and record screenshots.
Xbox diagnostic data. Diagnostic data has two categories: required and
optional.
Required. Xbox will send required data to Microsoft. The minimum data
necessary to help keep Xbox safe, secure, up to date, and performing as
expected.
Optional. Optional data is additional data that you choose to share with
Microsoft. Optional data may include additional details about the
operation, usage, and performance of your Xbox products and services, as
well as enhanced error reporting.
Learn more at Manage settings for optional data sharing.
Game captures. Any player in a multiplayer game session can record video
(game clips) and capture screenshots of their view of the game play. Other
players’ game clips and screenshots can capture your in-game character and
gamertag during that session. If a player captures game clips and screenshots on
a PC, the resulting game clips might also capture audio chat.
Captioning. During Xbox real-time (“party”) chat, players may activate a voiceto-text feature that lets them view that chat as text. If a player activates this
feature, all voice communication in the party is captioned for the player.
Microsoft uses the resulting text data to provide captioning of chat for players
who need it, as well as the other purposes described in this statement.
Xbox data viewable by others. Your gamertag, game and play statistics,
achievements, presence (whether you are currently signed in to Xbox), content
you share, and other data about your activity on Xbox can be seen by:
Other players signed in to Xbox.
Customers of third-party services you’ve linked your profile to, or
Other services associated with Xbox (including those of partner
companies).
For example, your gamertag and scores that show on game leaderboards are
considered public and cannot be hidden. For other data, you can adjust your
privacy settings on consoles and at Xbox.com to limit or block what is shared
with the public or with friends.
Learn more at Xbox online safety and privacy settings.
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Xbox data shared with third parties including game and apps publishers.
When you use an Xbox online game or any network-connected app on your
Xbox console, PC, or mobile device, the publisher of that game or app has
access to data about your usage to help the publisher deliver, support, and
improve its product. This data may include: your Xbox user identifier, gamertag,
limited account info such as country and age range, data about your in-game
communications, any Xbox enforcement activity, game-play sessions (for
example, moves made in-game, types of vehicles used in-game), your presence
on the Xbox network, the time you spend playing the game or app, rankings,
statistics, gamer profiles, avatars, or gamerpics, friends lists, activity feeds for
official clubs you belong to, official club memberships, and any content you
create or submit in the game or app.
Third-party publishers and developers of games and apps have their own
distinct and independent relationship with users and their collection and usage
of personal data is subject to their specific privacy policies. You should carefully
review their policies to determine how they use the data. For example,
publishers may choose to disclose or display game data (such as on
leaderboards) through their own services. You may find their policies linked from
game or app detail pages in the Microsoft Store.
Learn more at Data Sharing with Games and Apps.
To stop sharing game or app data with a publisher, remove its games or app
from all devices where you have installed them. Some publisher access to your
data may be revoked at https://microsoft.com/consent.
Children and family. If you have kids who want to use the Xbox network, you
can set up child and teen profiles for them once they have Microsoft accounts.
Adult organizers in your Microsoft family group can change consent choices and
online safety settings for child and teen profiles on Xbox.com.
Learn more about Microsoft family groups at Simplify your family’s life.
Learn more about managing Xbox profiles, at Xbox online safety and privacy
settings.
For more information about Microsoft’s collection of data from children,
including Xbox, please see the Collection of data from children section of this
privacy statement.
Safety. In order to help make the Xbox network a safe gaming environment and
enforce the Community Standards for Xbox, we may collect and review voice,
text, images, videos and in-game content (such as game clips you upload,
conversations you have, and things you post in clubs and games).
Anti-cheat and fraud prevention. Providing a fair gameplay environment is
important to us. We prohibit cheating, hacking, account stealing, and any other
unauthorized or fraudulent activity when you use an Xbox online game or any
network-connected app on your Xbox console, PC, or mobile device. In order to
detect and prevent fraud and cheating, we may use anti-cheat and fraud
prevention tools, applications, and other technologies. Such technologies may
create digital signatures (known as “hashes”) using certain information collected
from your Xbox console, PC, or mobile device, and how you use that device. This
can include information about the browser, device, activities, game identifiers,
and operating system.
Legacy.
Xbox 360. This Xbox console collects limited required diagnostic data to
keep your console functioning as expected while using a console
connected to the Xbox network.
Kinect. The Kinect sensor is a combination of camera, microphone, and
infrared sensor that can enable motions and voice to be used to control
gameplay. For example:
If you choose, the camera can be used to sign you in to the Xbox
network automatically using facial recognition. This data stays on the
console and is not shared with anyone, and you can choose to delete
this data from your console at any time.
For game play, Kinect will map distances between your body's joints
to create a stick figure representation of you that helps Kinect enable
play.
The Kinect microphone can enable voice chat between players during
play. The microphone also enables voice commands for control of
the console, game, or app, or to enter search terms.
The Kinect sensor can also be used for audio and video
communications through services such as Skype.
Learn more about Kinect at Xbox Kinect and Privacy.
Microsoft Store
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Microsoft Store is an online service, accessible via PC, the Xbox Console and the
Xbox App, that allows you to browse, download, purchase, rate, and review
applications and other digital content. It includes:
Apps and content for Windows devices such as phones, PCs, and tablets.
Games, subscriptions and other apps for Xbox consoles and other devices.
Products and apps for Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Exchange, Access, and
Project (2013 versions or later).
We collect data about how you access and use Microsoft Store; the products
you've viewed, purchased, or installed; the preferences you set for viewing apps
in Microsoft Store; and any ratings, reviews, or problem reports you submit. Your
Microsoft account is associated with your ratings and reviews; and if you write a
review, the name and picture from your Microsoft account will be published with
your review. Microsoft Store uses the region configured on your device to show
relevant and eligible content and merchandising. Microsoft Store uses your
device identifier to manage product rights tied to a specific device.
Permission for Microsoft Store apps. Many apps you install from the Microsoft
Store are designed to take advantage of specific hardware and software features
of your device. An app's use of certain hardware and software features may give
the app or its related service access to your data. For example, a photo editing
app might access your device's camera to let you take a new photo or access
photos or videos stored on your device for editing, and a restaurant guide might
use your location to provide nearby recommendations. Information about the
features that an app uses is provided on the app's product description page in
Microsoft Store. Many of the features that Microsoft Store apps use can be
turned on or off through your device’s privacy settings. In Windows, in many
cases, you can choose which apps can use a particular feature. Go to Start >
Settings > Privacy or Privacy & Security, select the feature (for example,
Calendar), and then select which app permissions are on or off. The lists of apps
in Windows privacy settings that can use hardware and software features will not
include "Classic Windows" applications, and these applications are not affected
by these settings.
App updates. Unless you have turned off automatic app updates in the relevant
Microsoft Store settings or have acquired an app provided and updated by the
app developer, Microsoft Store will automatically check for, download, and
install app updates to verify that you have the latest versions. Updated apps
might use different Windows hardware and software features from the previous
versions, which could give them access to different data on your device. You will
be prompted for consent if an updated app accesses certain features, such as
location. You can also review the hardware and software features an app uses by
viewing its product description page in Microsoft Store.
Each app's use of your data collected through any of these features is subject to
the app developer's privacy policies. If an app available through Microsoft Store
collects and uses any of your personal data, the app developer is required to
provide a privacy policy, and a link to the privacy policy is available on the app's
product description page in Microsoft Store.
Sideloaded apps and developer mode. Developer features such as the
"developer mode" setting are intended for development use only. If you enable
developer features, your device may become unreliable or unusable, and expose
you to security risks. Downloading or otherwise acquiring apps from sources
other than Microsoft Store, also known as "sideloading" apps, may make your
device and personal data more vulnerable to attack or unexpected use by apps.
Windows policies, notifications, permissions, and other features intended to help
protect your privacy when apps access your data may not function as described
in this statement for sideloaded apps or when developer features are enabled.
Microsoft Start
Microsoft Start (formerly known as MSN or Microsoft News) is a content service
that includes news, weather, sports, and finance. The Microsoft Start app is
available on various platforms, including iOS and Android. The Microsoft Start
service is also included within other Microsoft services, including the Microsoft
Edge browser and widgets on Windows.
When you install the Microsoft Start, MSN Weather, or Microsoft News apps, we
collect data that tells us if the app was installed properly, the installation date,
the app version, and other data about your device such as the operating system
and browser. This data is collected on a regular basis to help us determine the
number of app users and identify performance issues associated with different
app versions, operating systems, and browsers. When you use the weather app,
we use your location to provide you with relevant weather content.
We also collect data about how you interact with Microsoft Start content, such as
usage frequency and articles viewed, to provide you with relevant content.
Microsoft Start provides an enhanced experience when you sign in with your
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Microsoft account, including allowing you to customize your interests and
favorites. We use your location to provide you with relevant content such as
local weather and news. You can manage personalization through Microsoft
Start and Bing settings, as well as through settings in other Microsoft services
that include Microsoft Start services. We also use the data we collect to provide
you with advertisements that may be of interest to you. You can opt out of
interest-based advertising through the advertising links within Microsoft Start
services, or by visiting the Microsoft opt-out page.
Previous versions of MSN Money allow you to access personal finance
information from third-party financial institutions. MSN Money only displays this
information and does not store it on our servers. Your sign-in credentials used to
access your financial information from third parties are encrypted on your device
and are not sent to Microsoft. These financial institutions, as well as any other
third-party services you access through MSN services, are subject to their own
terms and privacy policies.
Silverlight
Microsoft Silverlight helps you to access and enjoy rich content on the Web.
Silverlight enables websites and services to store data on your device. Other
Silverlight features involve connecting to Microsoft to obtain updates, or to
Microsoft or third-party servers to play protected digital content.
Silverlight Configuration tool. You can make choices about these features in
the Silverlight Configuration tool. To access the Silverlight Configuration tool,
right click on content that is currently being displayed by Silverlight and select
Silverlight. You can also run the Silverlight Configuration tool directly. In
Windows, for example, you can access the tool by searching for "Microsoft
Silverlight."
Silverlight application storage. Silverlight-based applications can store data
files locally on your computer for a variety of purposes, including saving your
custom settings, storing large files for graphically intensive features (such as
games, maps, and images), and storing content that you create within certain
applications. You can turn off or configure application storage in the Silverlight
Configuration tool.
Silverlight updates. Silverlight will periodically check a Microsoft server for
updates to provide you with the latest features and improvements. A small file
containing information about the latest Silverlight version will be downloaded to
your computer and compared to your currently installed version. If a newer
version is available, it will be downloaded and installed on your computer. You
can turn off or configure updates in the Silverlight Configuration tool.
Digital Rights Management. Silverlight uses Microsoft Digital Rights
Management (DRM) technology to help protect the rights of content owners. If
you access DRM-protected content (such as music or video) with Silverlight, it
will request media usage rights from a rights server on the Internet. In order to
provide a seamless playback experience, you will not be prompted before
Silverlight sends the request to the rights server. When requesting media usage
rights, Silverlight will provide the rights server with an ID for the DRM-protected
content file and basic data about your device, including data about the DRM
components on your device such as their revision and security levels, and a
unique identifier for your device.
DRM updates. In some cases, accessing DRM-protected content will require an
update to Silverlight or to the DRM components on your device. When you
attempt to play content that requires a DRM update, Silverlight will send a
request to a Microsoft server containing basic data about your device, including
information about the DRM components on your computer such as their
revision and security levels, troubleshooting data, and a unique identifier for
your device. The Microsoft server uses this identifier to return a unique DRM
update for your device, which will then be installed by Silverlight. You can turn
off or configure DRM component updates on the Playback tab in the Silverlight
Configuration tool.
Windows Mixed Reality
Windows Mixed Reality allows you to enable a virtual reality experience that
immerses you in apps and games. Mixed Reality uses a compatible headset’s
camera, microphone, and infrared sensors to enable motions and voice to be
used to control gameplay and to navigate apps and games.
Microsoft collects diagnostic data to solve problems and to keep Mixed Reality
running on Windows up to date, secure, and operating properly. Diagnostic data
also helps us improve Mixed Reality and related Microsoft products and services
depending on the diagnostic data settings you’ve chosen for your device. Learn
more about Windows diagnostic data.
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Mixed Reality also processes and collects data specifically related to the Mixed
Reality experiences, such as:
Mixed Reality maps distances between your body's joints to create a stick
figure representation of you. If you are connected to the Internet, we
collect those numeric values to enable and improve your experience.
Mixed Reality detects specific hand gestures intended to perform simple
system interactions (such as menu navigation, pan/zoom, and scroll). This
data is processed on your PC and is not stored.
The headset's microphones enable voice commands to control games,
apps, or to enter search terms. Learn more about voice data collection.
Windows Mixed Reality can also be used for audio and video
communications through services such as Skype.
Your Privacy Choices
Consumer Health Privacy
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