The data-sharing settings in Windows 10 are enabled by default, and all users should review these occasionally, making tweaks where appropriate. Users may access the Start Menu to search for the Settings app. Navigate to Privacy, and on the left side of the pane, you’ll find a number of ways your device is sharing data.

Review all these areas and ascertain whether you’re open to letting your apps use services like the camera, microphone, and account information, where applicable. This is useful for ensuring there are no apps that can access data you’re unaware of.

By default, the Feedback & diagnostics setting highlights ‘enhanced data’ to Microsoft – so turn this off if you’d rather not.

Windows Defender users can also click the back arrow and choose Update & Security before navigating to Windows Defender. Ensure the default settings of enabling cloud-based detection and automatic sample submission suit your preferences and change if necessary.

Wi-Fi Sense, which is designed to connect your Windows 10 device to networks much more quickly, is also something that raises red flags for some. If your device is WiFi enabled, click the back arrow to enter the Settings menu, choose Network & Internet, then Wi-Fi, and choose Manage Wi-Fi Settings. We’d recommend turning off ‘Connect to suggested open hotspots’ and connecting to networks my contacts share. It’s also worth disabling the button under Paid Wi-Fi services.

Wi-Fi Sense might also lead to you sharing your network’s wireless credentials between all the devices nearby, including those you don’t control. It could, for example, allow a guest to log in quickly but pose a privacy risk. The only fix is to rename your network’s SSID so it ends with ‘_output.’

The recommended networking hygiene is to allow guests to connect to a guest wireless network separate from the main one. It’s also important to configure all devices not to use Wi-Fi Sense and ask staff to do the same before they bring their Windows 10 hardware onto the primary network.