You may soon view and delete diagnostic data in Windows 10

Recent Insider Builds of the upcoming Windows 10 version 1803 suggest that the system includes options to view and delete diagnostic data.

Microsoft’s stance on privacy has been criticized by privacy advocates and part of the Windows user base since the company released the first version of Windows 10 to the public.

A lack of transparency in regards to what is collected and for what reason, and no option to turn the collecting of diagnostic data off need to be mentioned explicitly.

Microsoft released information on basic and full Telemetry on Windows 10 in 2017 but did not add an option to Windows 10 that would allow users to view the collected data.

View and delete diagnostic data in Windows 10

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The most recent Windows 10 Insider Builds, released in December 2017 and January 2018, show two placeholders on the Diagnostic & feedback Settings page.

Open the Settings application with the shortcut Windows-I, and navigate to Privacy > Diagnostics & feedback.

There you may need to scroll down to find “diagnostic data viewer” and “delete diagnostic data” listed as options.

These have no function at the time but since Microsoft included them already, it appears that these will be part of the next feature update.

We don’t know exactly what the viewer will do, but it is likely that it will provide users with a list of collected diagnostic data. Whether that listing will offer a snapshot of the data only or the full data remains to be seen.

The delete diagnostic data button removes the collected data from the system. Microsoft needs to provide an explanation on how that works when it releases the feature. Can users delete data before it is sent to Microsoft, or only after the fact? How long is the data kept anyway on the device, and what reason would one have to delete the data after it has been submitted to Microsoft?

Closing Words

I’m still waiting for an opt-out option to disable the collecting and sending of Telemetry data to Microsoft. Adding options to view the collected diagnostic data is certainly appreciated as it lifts the curtain somewhat and improves transparency.

 

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