From Reuters:
European Union data protection watchdogs said on Monday they were still concerned about the privacy settings of Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system despite the U.S. company announcing changes to the installation process.
The watchdogs, a group made up of the EU's 28 authorities responsible for enforcing data protection law, wrote to Microsoft last year expressing concerns about the default installation settings of Windows 10 and users' apparent lack of control over the company's processing of their data.
The group - referred to as the Article 29 Working Party -asked for more explanation of Microsoft's processing of personal data for various purposes, including advertising.
"In light of the above, which are separate to the results of ongoing inquiries at a national level, even considering the proposed changes to Windows 10, the Working Party remains concerned about the level of protection of users’ personal data," the group said in a statement which also acknowledged Microsoft's willingness to cooperate.
Microsoft was not immediately available to comment.
A number of national authorities have already begun enquiries into Windows 10, including France which in July ordered Microsoft to stop collecting excessive user data.
A regulatory ruling by the EU would effectively apply in every EU country, though, excluding Switzerland and (soon enough) the U.K. but including basically everyone else, which could be a significant problem for Microsoft. If nothing else, this keeps Windows 10's privacy issues inconveniently front and centre at a time when Microsoft would very much like this particular topic of discussion to just die, already, which can't be at all helpful as they try to lure more Enterprise users into adopting the platform.
I'm sure that Microsoft were hoping that their legal and regulatory issues with Windows 10 were a thing of the past. This latest news from the EU is a pretty clear sign that they're very much an ongoing issue.