Five Windows 10 security tips to know

The old saying sharing is caring is a great philosophy to teach young kids, but when it comes to Windows 10 privacy, it can be an open door to users' data.

Microsoft has come under fire for the amount of data the company collects through Windows 10. The OS sends telemetry, personalization and services, and advertising data back to Microsoft from each user. This data hoarding is necessary to produce the best user experience possible, according to Microsoft.

Still, many users want to establish some personal boundaries, and they don't want Microsoft tracking their every digital move. Plus, if hackers access the data streaming back to Microsoft, they could steal users' personal information. IT must know about the major privacy issues within Windows 10 to best protect private and corporate data.

Admins and users can take action against these Windows 10 privacy issues. A good place to start is by switching off the advertising ID connected to each individual instance of Windows 10. Turning off this unique identification prevents Microsoft from seeing what each user is looking at specifically. Windows 10 Enterprise and Education users can also stop telemetry data transfers in their settings.

Windows 10 also collects user social graphs -- a user's social network, including online connections and relationships -- and location data. Facebook owns the largest amount of this data, and shares it with Microsoft when enabled in Windows 10. Location data is tricky because it provides personal geographic information, such as a user's home and office location, as well as his daily movements. IT and users can turn off this data transfer in the Location settings.

There are additional places to turn data off, such as the Typing, Other Devices and Group Policy settings. Users and IT should be aware that more privacy limits other areas, such as personalization with Cortana.