Over the years, Microsoft has become notorious for spying on its users and collecting as much information as possible. However, the free DoNotSpy11 program turns off many of these user-unfriendly and resource-draining “spying” features.
It’s long been known that Windows 10 and 11 are packed with “telemetry” features, or features that send user data to Microsoft so they can see how their operating system is being used.
However, Sweclockers notes that there are those who are trying to circumvent the tech giant’s constant monitoring of its users – including the developers of the Donotspy11 program, which turns off and blocks a large number of these monitoring features.
Among other things, it blocks Microsoft’s Windows Copilot AI assistant, which was released in early 2023 and, according to the site, “uses Bing’s chatbot with deep integration into the operating system”.
Linux – a freer option
It also blocks search suggestions and the ability of the Windows feature that indexes search content on the hard drive to access a user’s browsing history. Users also have the ability to set permissions for programs installed on their computer, similar to the privacy settings already available on Android and iOS.
Another strength of Donotspy11 is that it reveals how extensive the monitoring of Windows users actually is, and what the “invisible” background processes look like and how many there are.
Users who have tested the program also report a sudden increase in performance and the sudden disappearance of irregular “lag” caused by Windows’ resource-hogging spyware. Despite its name, Donotspy also works on Windows 10.
Windows’ systematic mass surveillance is one of several reasons why many users have abandoned the operating system in favor of Linux, which is free software and lacks these monitoring background processes and secret third-party reporting systems.