Guess what country sued Microsoft over abusive user data collection!

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Published onApril 28, 2018

published onApril 28, 2018

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Microsoft is forced to change its default installation process for its beloved Windows 10. A court was asked by federal prosecutors to force the tech giant to take such a “humiliating” action because, according to them, the installation process ofWindows 10violates a bunch of local laws by collecting user data without users’ “express consent.” Are you wondering where could this have happened? Drumrolls…it’s in Brazil!

Microsoft faces criticism in the EU as well

The company was bullied with a lot of criticism regarding the installation settings of Windows 10 and users’ lack of control at least at the first sight of their personal data andhow Microsoft processes their private info. Brazil’s federal prosecutors stated that the default setting for Brazilian customers when they installed the OS gave automatic approval for the company to gather user data including browsing and search histories, email content and location.

The federal prosecutors’ office in Sao Paolo stated that this procedure violates “innumerous constitutional principals” such asprivacy protection. A civil lawsuit was filed against Microsoft toblock Windows 10 from collecting user datawithout the user’s specific consent.

Prosecutors asked Microsoft to stop its automatic data collection

The prosecutors’ statement claimed that the company is trying to make more profits on the back of data collected from users for aiming targeted ads at specific consumer groups.

Prosecutors asked the company to terminate the process of collecting data automatically within 15 days and they are also demanding that the company includes alerts for consumers when they install the software to provide a more transparent process and a better understanding of the consequences triggered by the authorization of data transfer. They asked that Microsoft be fined $2.87 million for each day that the company doesn’t comply with their requests.

Microsoft is still waiting for the judge to issue a final ruling.

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Guess what country sued Microsoft over abusive user data collection!

Microsoft faces criticism in the EU as well

Prosecutors asked Microsoft to stop its automatic data collection