Federal prosecutors in Brazil have petitioned in court over Microsoft illegally collecting users data and not abiding to local laws of the state. The Windows 10 installer has violated several local laws by collecting the data of its users without “express consent”.
The European Union has criticized Microsoft for default installation settings and lack of the control over the user’s data while the install process is taking place. The Microsoft Office in Brazil have not yet responded to the allegations. The Federal prosecutors said that Windows 10 is collecting data automatically and including information such as emails, name and user location.
“The procedure violates innumerous constitutional principals, such as the privacy protection,” the federal prosecutors office in Sao Paulo said.
The government filed a civil lawsuit against Microsoft to block Windows 10 from collecting the personal data of users while the install process is taking place. The government gave Microsoft a grace period of 15 days before it takes civil action against the company. The authorities also said that Microsoft will be fined 10 Million reais ($2.87 Million) and 100,000 for each day the company doesn’t comply with the nations privacy policy.
Microsoft said that installing the software by adding all these permission filters is a labour intensive process and the installation process will be complex to the consumer. There was also a statement that the company is trying to increase its profits on the back of the data collected from the users.
The statement from the Federal Prosecutors also stated that federal government entities including and electoral agencies use Microsoft’s software which creates the risk of private information going public.
It is still not clear of what the court will decide about Microsoft’s illicit data collection but the installer has already collected a lot of data from the users which is currently stored on the company servers.
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