If you're at all concerned about the privacy of your data, you don't want to leave the default settings in place on your devices—and that includes anything that runs Windows 10.

Microsoft's operating system comes with a variety of controls and options you can modify to lock down the use of your data, from the information you share with Microsoft to the access that individual apps have to your location, camera, and microphone. Check these privacy-related settings as soon as you've got your Windows 10 computer set up—or now, in case you're a longtime user who hasn't gotten around to it yet.

Turn Off Targeted Advertising

Windows 10 comes with its very own Privacy screen in the Settings panel; click the cog icon on the Start menu to find it. Right at the top of the General tab is an option to enable or disable apps' access to your advertising ID.

This is basically Microsoft's profile of you and what it thinks you're interested in. If you disable this toggle switch, you won't see fewer ads in Windows 10—in the Windows Store, for example—or in the apps you've installed, but they won't be specifically targeted toward you.

Flicking the switch to Off actually resets your advertising ID, so you can turn it off and on again to start with a clean slate, if you don't mind targeted ads but think the various tracking services Microsoft uses have you all wrong.

Dial Back Diagnostic Feedback

If you let it, Microsoft will monitor the websites you browse and the apps you use in order to personalize your Windows experience. You can read more about its policies here. It uses browsing data to improve Bing search results, for example, and app data to spot malfunctioning installs.

This sounds a little scary, but you can at least see what data Microsoft collects: Under the Diagnostics & feedback tab in the Privacy section of Settings, turn on the option to view diagnostic data. You can also delete everything that Microsoft has collected so far.

If you think Microsoft is overreaching here, change the data collection from Full to Basic using the checkboxes at the top. On the Basic setting, your computer only sends back information about your device, how it's configured, and whether it's currently working properly. There's unfortunately not currently a way to turn it off altogether.

Turn Off Activity History

Windows 10 wants to track everything you do on the OS. Microsoft would argue that's not to check up on you but, rather, to enable you to jump back to whatever website or document you were looking at, even if you've switched computers. You can control that behavior under Activity history on the Privacy page of Settings.

You can opt to stop sending Microsoft this data, and stop collecting it altogether, using the tick boxes at the top of the page. You won't be able to make use of the Timeline feature in Windows 10 if you do (click the Task View button on the taskbar to see it in action), so read Microsoft's privacy policy if you're undecided.

On the same dialog you can turn activity tracking on or off for different accounts, if you've got multiple accounts set up on your computer, as well as clear all of the history that Microsoft has accumulated so far.

Turn Off Location Tracking

Open up the Location page in Privacy under Settings, and you can turn off location tracking for the device that you're currently using. You won't be able to use mapping apps, localized search, and so on, but Microsoft won't know where you are.