I doubt Microsoft can avoid doing so. They're sending so-called "telemetry" that includes browsing and purchasing data. It's going to include personal data, there's no way to carefully separate it out. While they might not intentionally grab a copy of a user's 1040 Form out of their TurboTax folder, they're sending information that can reference it, describe it, talk about it... just like Google does with GMail. People write about financial matters all the time in email and other communications that are considered legit targets of these scans. Just because the information is allegedly "anonymized" doesn't mean it can't be lined up against other data and correlations made. Ever use Google's search? Thought so...
I don't need to have access to Microsoft's storage arrays to know that they have stuff in there that is private and personal. A moment's rational thought about what they admit they are collecting makes it obvious that personal stuff gets transmitted as well. There's no way not to have it happen.
> I'm having a hard time believing that Microsoft is willing to assume the legal liability for having that information.
I think it's a matter of survival in a consumer market that has stopped being about productivity and programming hobbies, and has become all about selling everything under the sun (see, e.g.: Amazon) to a buying base that is conditioned to accept "targeted ads" and "infomercials" and pitches posing as entertainment.
Microsoft has seen their once-unassailable grip on consumers sliding for over a decade, but Ballmer and his crew believed that merely tightening their grip on Windows was sufficient to stave off the threats of other OSes and later the mobile devices. They missed the boat entirely, and now their successors are desperate.
I think they are completely willing to take that risk. One, they have some really good lawyers. Two, they know that most people don't give a crap about privacy and are willing to bend over and show everything to a bunch of advertisers, just to save a buck or two on some purchase.
I believe Microsoft has decided that the legal liability is just the "cost of doing business" in a market they no longer control.
Given the installed base, one successful class action suit could easily be fatal.
I don't doubt they may inadvertently capture personal data with programs like EMET.
Do you know of a way that can be avoided? If it can't be avoided, can you make the case that they should not be running that program and capturing that data?