Stopping Microsoft from spying on your Windows computer

Is it possible to stop Microsoft from harvesting all of your data? Yes, it is.

One way is to move to Mac, Chrome OS, or Linux. Of course, Mac simply means Apple will harvest your data. Chrome OS means Google will host your data. But you can also keep using Windows if you like, but it takes some work.

Britec has a video on how to block certain Microsoft services on your Windows computer. It's an interesting video:

[YouTube]

This is sort of how Pi-Hole works on a network basis. The files used by Pi-Hole are exactly like the Windows Hosts file. That's the standard used by operating systems and domain name services. If an items appears in your Hosts file, that information will be used, rather than the actual information that is hosted by a domain name server.

If privacy is a concern, and you feel technically capable of doing this, then this video might be helpful. And, if it breaks everything, you can delete it. An empty HOSTS file won't harm your system. In fact, the default Windows HOSTS file is effectively empty, since all the lines begins with the # character, meaining the line is skipped. It's effectively empty.

My Streaming Life stays private because I use a Pi-Hole setup on my network. But, if you are only concerned about certain data being sent from your computer to Microsoft, this method might fill the bill.