2.2 KiB
Virus & threat protection
Virus & threat protection settings
Automatic Sample Submission
Should be turned off. Supposedly will prompt if the files it want to submit are document files, but why not just make it prompt for every file it wants to submit?
Ransomeware protection
Turn on Controlled folder access. This will protect certain dirs and prevent direct writes to the disk.
Firewall & Network protection
Tick "Block incoming connections" for Domain network, Private network, and Public network.
App & browser control
Smart App Control
Smart App Control forces Smartscreen for apps & files to be on, which could lead to privacy issues. It can also break certain applications. Whether to keep this on or not depends on the threat model.
Reputation-based protection
Check apps and files.
This sends hashes and file paths to Microsoft. It will also sends the URL of where you download a program from to Microsoft. Whether to keep this on or not depends on the threat model.
SmartScreen for Microsoft Edge
This setting is independant from Smart App Control. Extremely privacy invasive. Sends FULL URLs to Microsoft. Whether to keep this on or not depends on the threat model, though it probably should be off in most cases.
Consider scenarios where you use Proton Drive/Mega/PrivateBin which append the encryption key in the URL. Now you are sending both the URL and the key to Microsoft. Something that's supposed to be private / end-to-end encrypted now gets leaked just like that. Or if you use PHPMyAdmin with the username & password appended for logins - now you are leaking access to your database.
Phising protection
Not sure if this does online or offline checks, so privacy implications are unclear. It is theatre anyways - use a proper password manager and FIDO2. Best to keep it off.
Potentially unwanted app blocking
Unclear what is being sent, probably the same as "Check apps and files".
SmartScreen for Microsoft Store apps
Probably same as SmartScreen for Microsoft Edge. Might not be as egregious though if the apps you use don't access URLs you wanna keep private. I personally keep it on.
Exploit protection
Turn Force randomization for images (Mandatory ALSR) to "On by default".