Microsoft has been accused of spying on its users with some of the features that it implemented in Windows 10, and the company not only refrains from commenting too much on these claims but it has also released some updates for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 computers, which appear to enhance data collection on older OS versions.

A number of updates that Redmond has recently released “introduce the Diagnostics and Telemetry tracking service” in Windows 7 and 8.1 and “add telemetry points to the User Account Control (UAC) feature to collect information on elevations that come from low integrity levels,” as the company says in the official KB pages.

The updates in question are KB3068708, KB3022345, KB3075249, and KB3080149, and you can find their full description in the box after the jump.

Basically, once you install any or all these updates, Microsoft can start data collection from your Windows 7 or 8.1 computer in the same way it does on Windows 10.

How to stop data collection

As WinAero notes, KB3068708 even mentions two of the domains that Microsoft is using to send collected data to, so if you want to stop this from happening, you need to add them to the HOSTS file and completely block both (more information on how to edit HOSTS file here):

vortex-win.data.microsoft.com settings-win.data.microsoft.com

But the best way to prevent data tracking if the updates are already installed on your computer is to remove them completely, so go to Control Panel > View installed updates and remove all the four updates mentioned above.

Additionally, you can remove them faster by launching a command prompt window with administrator privileges and typing in the following commands one by one: