We collect diagnostic data as you use your Surface devices, Surface accessories, and Surface applications. Diagnostic data can include information about crashes, performance, and usage of Surface products. The data that is sent to Microsoft is used to help keep Surface secure, up to date, and performing as expected and can help us make other improvements to Surface.
There are two types of diagnostic data:
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Required. The minimum amount of data that we need to collect to help keep Surface devices, Surface accessories, and the Surface application secure, up to date, and performing as expected.
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Optional. Additional diagnostic and usage data about your Surface devices, Surface accessories, and the Surface application. If you choose to send optional diagnostic data to Microsoft, required diagnostic data is also included.
Required diagnostic data is always sent to Microsoft for all Surface devices, Surface accessories, and the Surface application. But you can choose whether to allow Surface to collect optional diagnostic data and send it to Microsoft. You can make that choice when you first set up your Surface device or change the setting at any time in the Surface app.
Note: For a list of required diagnostic data collected, see Required diagnostic data for Surface products.
How we use diagnostic data for Surface products
We use Required diagnostic data about Surface in the following ways:
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Basic error information is used to help determine whether problems your device is experiencing can be addressed by the driver and firmware update process for Surface.
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Information about your device, its settings, and capabilities, including applications and drivers installed on your device, is used to ascertain whether your device is ready for and compatible with the next operating system or app release and ready for update.
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Analyze issues based on specific hardware, system, and software combinations and identify where problems or issues occur with a specific or limited set of devices.
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Determine whether an app or process experiences a performance issue (for example, the app crashes or hangs) and when a crash-dump file is created on the device. (Note: crash dumps themselves are not collected without additional permissions.)
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Understand the effectiveness and fix problems with the diagnostic transmission system itself.
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Information about your devices, peripherals, and settings (and their configurations) is used to prioritize product improvements by determining which improvements will have the greatest positive impact to the most Surface customers.
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Make product improvements in the context of keeping your Surface device up to date and secure as well as improvement in the following areas: problem-solving; accessibility; reliability; performance; enhancing existing Surface features; compatibility of apps, drivers, and other utilities; privacy; and energy efficiency.
We use Optional diagnostic data about Surface in the following ways:
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Information about app activity is used to understand what the user was doing in an app that caused a problem in conjunction with what we learn about the impact of other apps or processes running on a Surface device.
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Information about the impact of Surface device characteristics and configuration, on device health (for example, on battery life) is used to analyze and make changes that improve the performance of Surface devices.
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Information contained in enhanced error reporting and crash dumps is used to better understand the data related to the specific conditions under which an error or crash occurred.
We use both Required diagnostic data and Optional diagnostic data to troubleshoot issues to help keep Surface and related products and services reliable and secure. Microsoft uses the additional data collected when you choose to send Optional diagnostic data to help spot and fix problems more quickly. Optional diagnostic data may be also used to help make even more meaningful improvements to Surface and other Microsoft products and services.
Choose your optional diagnostic data setting
If you want to change whether optional diagnostic data is collected and sent to Microsoft, you can use the Surface app.
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Select Start, search for Surface, and then select the app from the list of results.
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In the Surface app, under Data Collection, turn on or turn off the Send optional diagnostic data toggle.
Notes:
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If you don't have the Surface app installed, you can download the Surface app from the Microsoft Store. After it is downloaded and installed, select Start, search for Surface, then select the app from the list of results.
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If your device is managed by your organization, the Send optional diagnostic data toggle isn’t available in the Surface app. Required diagnostic data will still be sent to Microsoft.
