Windows 10 is equally praised for its novelties and criticized for the well-known privacy issues that made many of its users feel rather uneasy and concerned. As a result, rather numerous third-party applications have been developed with the sole purpose of tackling and solving the privacy issues of Windows 10. Spybot Anti-Beacon is one of these apps, and the fact that it's created by the same team that developed the highly-acclaimed SpyBot Search & Destroy antispyware product it's already a guarantee for reliability and efficiency.
Spybot Anti-Beacon lets you disable the OS options that make Windows 10 be a problem for your privacy, such as its various tracking (telemetry) functions. Other features, such as advertising IDs, group sharing policies, or the “Consumer Experience Improvement Program” (CEIP) can also be blocked and removed. This handy app lets you selectively disable only specific functions, or block all of the privacy-related features at once, just by clicking the “Immunize” button.
Unlike other similar privacy protection tools, Spybot Anti-Beacon won't work only with Windows 10, but it will block the similar tracking functionality in Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 operating systems. There's also a convenient Undo function that will let you easily revert any changes and re-enable tracking services, if that's what you desire.
In conclusion, Spybot Anti-Beacon is a must-have if you care for your privacy and you're a Windows 10 user. Best of all, it's completely free.
v1.5 [Oct 20, 2015]
Implemented /silent
Added Office 15 (2013) Telemetry immunization (Group Policies & Scheduled Tasks)
Added Office 16 (2016) Telemetry immunization (Group Policies & Scheduled Tasks)
Hosts file block IP default changed from 127.0.0.1 to 0.0.0.0
Added own group policy for hosts file read only flag
Added own group policy for hosts file block IP
Added own group policies for hiding each immunizer
Added OpenSSL libraries to installer
Added OpenSSL credits to About dialog
Added own scheduled task
