Microsoft Starts New Windows 11 Insider Preview With a New Privacy Option

With Windows Hello and other presence systems, Windows 11 can take care of logins, registrations and deregistrations, and other things quite independently. Now the operating system gets new options that allow precise fine-tuning for sensor access.

Windows 11 gets new options for sensor access

With a whole range of sensors, Windows can recognize whether the user is currently active. In the latest insider update KB5025299, which brings Windows 11 to the preview build 22624.1610, there are new options in the data protection settings that are intended to give the user even more precise control over these presence detection systems. As the developers write in the release blog post, it will be possible to control exactly which applications have access to the sensor data.

Microsoft provides a simple definition for the “HumanPresenceSensor” class in its API documentation. This broadly refers to all sensors that can detect “whether a user is present or absent or not interacting with their device”. If the corresponding hardware is present in the device, the new “Presence Sensing” options can be found in the privacy settings with the fresh Insider update.

Microsoft allows here to restrict or allow access to sensor data in general. This is followed by the option that allows precise settings based on individual applications. App developers who distribute devices with compatible occupancy sensors must align their apps according to the new interfaces. Below this, Windows 11 lists all activities in which a sensor was accessed.

Last but not least, Microsoft emphasizes that no data is sent to the company’s servers to provide presence detection under Windows 11. “Microsoft does not collect images or metadata, and all processing is done locally on the device hardware to maximize privacy,” the company said of the process.