If you've come to this page, you probably already know that Windows 10 has a feature called Wi-Fi Sense, or Wi-Fi Control. Earlier, this feature was on the Windows Phone mobile system. But with the release of Windows 10, it became available for ordinary computer users as well.
What is Wi-Fi Sense? This is a service that allows you to connect to those Wi-Fi networks that your friends from Skype, Facebook, or Outlook used to connect to and share the password for that network. This means that if you are in the coverage area of the network to which your friend connected and shared the key to this network, then your laptop will connect to it without any problems, without asking for a password. Likewise, your friends will be able to connect to the hotspots you connected to and share the password.
By default, the Wi-Fi Sense feature in Windows 10 is enabled and working. When connected to Wi-Fi, when you enter the password, you will see this item "Allow access to the network for my contacts".
If you check the box, then your friends will be able to connect to this network without a password. This feature will only work if you're signed in with your Microsoft account, not your local account.
What's wrong with Wi-Fi Sense and why disable it?
In fact, the thing is interesting, and I think there is nothing bad in it. But in practice, hardly anyone would use it. However, there is one point, this is "surveillance", if you can call it that. In the Windows 10 settings, or rather on the "Wi-Fi Control" settings page, it is clearly written that using "Wi-Fi Control", you already agree that the system will know your location. It is not written there, but this information will be sent to Microsoft servers, just like a lot of other information.
Whether it is bad, or good, what it threatens, no one knows, but everyone is already puzzled by the fact that Windows 10 collects a lot of information about the user, and then also the location through the Wi-Fi Sense service. Therefore, many simply turn it off. Of course, I doubt that after disconnecting, your location data is no longer transferred anywhere, but so many are calmer.
If you are interested in my opinion about the collection of different data by the Windows 10 system (and judging by what they write on the Internet, Microsoft knows everything about users), then I think you need to forget about it and just use it. Other services have been collecting different information about us for a long time, the same Apple devices, and Microsoft in the new version of its system simply openly announced this, so the noise around this began. If you are so calmer, then you can follow the recommendations for disabling tracking, which are written on the Internet. But even after that there are no guarantees, this must be understood.
Anyway, we're not going anywhere. Well, let's sit for another year or two on Windows 7 (and how do we know that it is not monitoring), so what? And then we will switch to a new system, they will simply force us imperceptibly.
Disable Wi-Fi Sense in Windows 10
Open the panel with quick settings, and select the item All parameters.
Next, go to the section Network and Internet.
Click on the item Managing Wi-Fi Network Settings.
You will see a page with settings for the Wi-Fi control function. To disable this function, just set two switches next to itemsConnecting to the proposed open hotspots and Connect to networks shared by my contacts into position Off
That's it, Wi-Fi Sense is disabled.
