Windows 10 tracks your location even when setting is switched off

[Tipup]

MICROSOFT IS tracking your location, even if the settings appear to be set to 'off'.

Both Timeline and Activity History now form part of the Windows 10 operating system and work by storing all your activity either locally or on the device, so you can easily jump back to a previous task.

Thing is, a Redditor spotted that even with the entire feature disabled, your activity is still available to view online, meaning it is being transferred to the cloud and stored.

Worse still, the whistleblower wasn't using a Microsoft account, but a simple local account like what we used to have in the olden days.

We tried it. Of course we did. Same result. So let's talk about how you really stop the tracking.

The setting is easily accessible in the Computer Configuration menus, under Administrative Templates. Disable "Allow publishing of user activities", Disable "Enable activity feed" and Disable "Allow upload of User Activities".

Sufficed to say, we'd never been in this screen before (and lord knows, we love a tinker) and how a casual user would stumble across it is anyone's guess. It seems it was not meant to be disabled.

A statement from Microsoft explains that this is no accident: "Microsoft is committed to customer privacy, being transparent about the data we collect and use for your benefit, and we give you controls to manage your data.

"In this case, the same term 'Activity History' is used in both Windows 10 and the Microsoft Privacy Dashboard. Windows 10 Activity History data is only a subset of the data displayed in the Microsoft Privacy Dashboard. We are working to address this naming issue in a future update."

The "naming issue" refers to a plan to give the feature a more explanatory title so that people aren't caught out. We'll leave you to decide whether it's because that's best for the customer, or whether they simply got rumbled. Again. μ