Windows 11 privacy settings to change

To improve your privacy in Windows 11, turn off online speech recognition, ad tracking, diagnostic data, activity history, location access for unwanted apps, overall experience, personalized suggestions, and OneDrive. Then enable DNS over HTTPS, switch your PC account to local, and delete your data from the Microsoft website.

If you value your privacy more than anything else, there are several settings you can change on your Windows 11 PC to keep your data to yourself. Here are some of the basic privacy settings you need to change on your computer.

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1. Disable online speech recognition
2. Disable ad tracking in Windows 11
3. Prevent diagnostic data from being sent from your PC to Microsoft
4. Disable activity history
5. Control location access for your apps
6. Disable the shared experience
7. Enable DNS over HTTPS
8. 8 . Disable personalized offers
9. Use a local account instead of an online Microsoft account
10. Disable OneDrive
11. Delete your Microsoft account information
12. Disable online speech recognition

Apps that use Microsoft online speech recognition technology send your voice data to Microsoft processing centers. If you do not use such applications, it is recommended to disable this feature. Please note that not all Windows 11 voice apps use this technology. For example, Windows speech recognition does not use this online technology.

To disable this option, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Speech and turn off the Online Speech Recognition toggle.

2. Disable ad tracking in Windows 11

Windows 11 assigns you a unique advertising ID when you use your PC. This identifier allows advertisers to show you personalized ads based on your computer usage. If you do not want these personalized ads, please turn off ad tracking on your computer.

To do this, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > General and turn off the “Allow apps to show me personalized ads using my advertising ID” setting.

3. Prevent diagnostic data from being sent from your PC to Microsoft

Microsoft collects data from your computer to help the company improve its Windows operating system, keep it secure, and ensure it works as expected. In addition to this, it collects additional diagnostic data from your computer, including websites viewed, applications and features accessed, and extended error reporting.

You can prevent your computer from sending this additional data. Microsoft, and the company says your computer will remain just as secure even if you don’t send that extra data to it.

To configure this setting, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Diagnostics & Feedback > Diagnostic Data. Here, disable the “Send optional diagnostic data” option.

4. Disable activity history

Activity History in Windows 11 collects a variety of data about you, such as what sites you browse, what files you open, and how you access your apps and features. Although this data is stored locally on your system, Microsoft will have access to it if you’re signed into a school or work account and have given the company permission to view your data. Microsoft says it uses this data to provide you with a personalized experience.

If you don’t want the company to see this data about you, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Activity History and turn off the “Save activity history on this device” option. Then delete the already collected data by clicking “Clear”.

5. Control location access for your apps

Not all apps on your computer require access to your location, but many require them to collect as much information about you as possible. Fortunately, this can be avoided by disabling location access for these apps.

To do this, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location > Allow apps to access your location. Find the app you don’t want to share your location information with, then turn off the switch next to the app.

The apps you select no longer have access to your location data.

6. Disable the shared experience

Windows 11′ Shared Experience allows you to leave an activity on one device and continue it on another device where you’re signed in to the same Microsoft account. Essentially, this means that Microsoft is collecting data about your activity so that you can then resume your activity on another device.

If you don’t want this to happen, go to Settings > Apps > Apps & Features > Share across devices and select Off.

7. Enable DNS over HTTPS

When you try to access a website, your computer asks DNS servers to resolve that domain name to an IP address. Traditionally, this process occurred over unencrypted connections, which threatened your privacy.

With DNS over HTTPS (DoH), you can encrypt these requests so that third parties, such as your ISP, cannot access them. To activate and use this feature, you’ll need to enable the setting in the Settings app on your Windows 11 PC, so check out our dedicated guide on this topic to find out how.

8 . Disable personalized offers

Microsoft may use diagnostic data you submit to provide you with personalized advertising, advice, and recommendations. If you don’t need these accessibility features, turn them off.

Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Diagnostics & Feedback > Tailored Experiences and turn off the switch.

9. Use a local account instead of an online Microsoft account

If you’re signed into a Microsoft account on your PC, chances are you’ll be using an app or service that sends your data to the company. To reduce these issues, consider using a local account instead of a Microsoft account on your PC.

You can turn your existing online PC account into a local account so you don’t have to create one from scratch. and configure it. Check out our guide on this topic to find out how.

10. Disable OneDrive

OneDrive is Microsoft’s cloud storage service associated with Windows 11. If you don’t use this cloud storage provider and don’t want to upload anything to it, it’s a good idea to turn off the services on your computer.

We’ve written a guide on how to disable OneDrive, so follow the instructions there to learn how to get rid of this app on your computer.

11. Delete your Microsoft account information

Finally, you can delete the data Microsoft has already collected about you. This includes sites you’ve visited in Edge, places you’ve been, and more. You can view all this data yourself and choose which ones you want to clear.

To do this, open a web browser on your PC and go to the Microsoft privacy page. Sign in to your account if you haven’t already.

Once logged in, access the various options on the web page to view and delete your data. For example, to view the location data that Microsoft has about you, expand the Location Activity tab. To clear the data in this tab, click Clear all location activities.

Similarly, explore all the tabs on the web page to view and delete all the data Microsoft has collected about you.

And these are just some of the ways you can gain even more privacy on your Windows 11 PC. You may want to take things a step further in protecting your data, such as changing your Google privacy settings, changing your PS5 privacy settings, and also reviewing some important Facebook privacy settings.