Privacy concerns in Windows 10 have spawned a number of apps designed to improve privacy in Microsoft’s operating system. Here’s a list of several apps you can use to help stop Windows 10 from collecting private information about you and sending it to Microsoft.
You can, of course, configure privacy settings on Windows 10 manually. But the following apps aim to make privacy configuration easier. They let you change the way Windows 10 behaves without requiring you to edit low-level system settings. Instead, you can just check boxes to enable or disable various privacy-related features.
Here are the privacy apps for Windows 10:
- Win10 Spy Disabler. This is one of the newest apps for Windows 10 privacy configuration. It doesn’t provide a lot of granularity or advanced configurability. However, it makes controlling major privacy-related features in Windows very simple.
- DisableWinTracking. This is an open-source app that lets you check or uncheck boxes to configure privacy in Windows 10. It’s pretty basic and doesn’t provide much fine-tuned configurability, but it’s easy to install and run. Plus, the fact that it is open source is an assurance against the risk of built-in malware.
- Destroy Windows 10 Spying. As its name implies, this app promises to remove apps and disable settings in Windows 10 that collect data about you. It’s also open source.
- Windows 10 Privacy Fixer. This app was one of the first third-party graphical frontends for privacy configuration in Windows 10. It’s basic, but it gets the job done. Unfortunately, the website that hosts it seems spotty, and it’s unclear how well this app is currently being maintained.
It’s worth keeping in mind that adding apps to your system is theoretically not a good idea. The more software you have installed, the more opportunity you create for hackers to exploit coding flaws in order to gain control of your system, or for malicious apps to do things that you don’t want. For that reason, it may be better to configure privacy settings in Windows 10 by hand if you have the time and knowledge to do so.
But if you want a quick and easy privacy fix, the apps above will get the job done.
