Microsoft Silverlight 4 Privacy Statement

Last updated: September 2010

At Microsoft, we're working hard to help protect your privacy, while delivering software that brings you the performance, power, and convenience you desire in your personal computing. This privacy statement explains the data collection and use practices of Microsoft Silverlight 4 (“Silverlight”). It does not apply to other online or offline Microsoft Web sites, products, or services.

Silverlight helps you to access and enjoy rich content on Web sites while using your Internet browsers. This privacy statement describes how Silverlight interacts with Microsoft in order to offer you Silverlight updates and other Internet-enabled features.

Collection and Use of Information About Your Computer

Internet-enabled features in software will send information about your computer ("standard computer information") to the Web sites you visit and Web services you use. This information is generally not personally identifiable. Standard computer information typically includes information such as your IP address, operating system version, browser version, your hardware ID which indicates the device manufacturer, device name, and device version, application version and your regional and language settings. In this case, the application version would be the version of Silverlight installed on your device. Silverlight contains an update notification feature that sends standard computer information to Microsoft.

Information that is sent to Microsoft by this software will be used to provide you with Silverlight features and services. This information may be used to improve Silverlight and our other products and services, as well as for analysis purposes. Except as described in this statement, information you provide will not be transferred to third parties without your consent. We occasionally hire other companies to provide limited services on our behalf, such as packaging, sending, and delivering purchases and other mailings, answering customer questions about software or services, processing event registration, or performing statistical analysis of our services. We will only provide those companies the information they need to deliver the service, and they are prohibited from using that information for any other purpose.

Microsoft may access or disclose information about you, including the content of your communications, in order to: (a) comply with the law or respond to lawful requests or legal process; (b) protect the rights or property of Microsoft or our customers, including the enforcement of our agreements or policies governing your use of the services; or (c) act on a good faith belief that such access or disclosure is necessary to protect the personal safety of Microsoft employees, customers or the public.

Information that is collected by or sent to Microsoft may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country/region in which Microsoft or its affiliates, subsidiaries, or service providers maintain facilities. Microsoft abides by the safe harbor framework as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of data from the European Union, the European Economic Area, and Switzerland. 

Silverlight Application Storage

Silverlight-based applications can store data files locally on your computer for a variety of purposes: saving your custom settings, storing large files for graphically intensive features (such as games, maps, and images), and storing content that you create within certain applications.  Application storage is turned on by default, but Web sites are initially limited to a total of 1 megabyte of storage.  If the application requires more than 1 megabyte, Silverlight will ask you if you want to increase the available storage for the Web site hosting the application.

To configure application storage

1.       Right click on content that is currently being displayed by Silverlight and select Silverlight or follow the instructions below to start the Silverlight Configuration tool while offline.

2.       Select the Application Storage tab.

3.       Delete storage for individual Web sites or all Web sites using the Delete or Delete All buttons

4.       To turn off application storage, uncheck Enable application storage and click OK.

Silverlight Updates

Unless you change the settings in the Silverlight Configuration panel, Silverlight will periodically check a Microsoft Web site for updates to provide you with the latest features and improvements. When it does so, a request is sent to Microsoft that contains standard computer information, as described above. A small file containing information about the latest Silverlight version will be downloaded to your computer and compared to your currently installed version. If a newer version is available, it will be downloaded and installed on your computer.

To change your update settings

Right click on content that is currently being displayed by Silverlight and select Silverlight or follow the instructions below to start the Silverlight Configuration tool while offline. 
Select the Updates tab. 
Chose to either install updates automatically, check for updates and prompt you to download and install them, or never check for updates 
Click the OK button 
Note: Silverlight may also be updated via Microsoft Update or Windows Server Update Services.

Silverlight and Your Media Devices

Some Silverlight-based applications may provide features that use media devices connected to your computer.    For example, a Silverlight video editing application may allow you to use your computer’s camera and/or microphone to record video and/or audio.  Silverlight will ask you before allowing Silverlight-based applications to access your media devices.

Microsoft Digital Rights Management

Silverlight uses Microsoft Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology to preserve the rights of content owners who protect their music or video products in this manner. You must have the media usage rights required to play protected DRM content.

Updating Media Usage Rights. If you access DRM protected content in a Silverlight application (typically on a Web site), Silverlight will automatically request media usage rights from a rights server on the Internet. You will not be prompted before Silverlight sends the request to the rights server. This helps to ensure that you have a seamless playback experience. When requesting media usage rights, Silverlight will provide the rights server with standard computer information, an ID for the DRM protected content (music or video) file, a request for permission to play the content, information about the DRM components on your computer such as their revision and security levels, and a unique identifier for your computer. The unique identifier is used only to generate rights for your computer and, because it is enclosed in an encrypted request, is not available to the rights server in a way that uniquely identifies you or your computer.

Player Revocation. If the security of your version of Silverlight is compromised, owners of secure content may request that Microsoft revoke the right of Silverlight to copy, display, and/or play secure content. If your version of Silverlight has been revoked, it will not be able to play secure content until you update Silverlight to a more recent and more secure version. Revocation does not alter the ability of Silverlight to play unprotected content.

DRM Component Updates. Updates to the DRM components on your computer may be required in order to access content that is protected by DRM technology. When you attempt to play content that requires a DRM update, Silverlight will send a request to a Microsoft server containing standard computer information, standard troubleshooting data, information about the DRM components on your computer, such as their revision and security levels, and a unique identifier for your computer that is based on your hardware configuration. The Microsoft server uses this identifier to return a unique DRM update for your computer, which will then be installed by Silverlight.

Unique Client Identification.  To better personalize your experience and to protect against abuse, some Silverlight applications may request a unique identifier from your machine.  For example, this may allow a Web site to offer you free content for a limited trial period, while helping to ensure that the free trial is not repeated.  The unique identifier is based on the Web site hosting the Silverlight application as well as your hardware and software configuration.  If two different Silverlight applications are hosted on two different Web sites, each one will generate its own unique identifier for your machine. This unique identifier will be the same any time it is requested by a Silverlight application on a given Web site.  You may disable Unique Client Identification by disabling DRM as described below.  If you disable DRM, you will not be able to access or play protected content.  Disabling and re-enabling DRM will not change the unique identifier generated by Unique Client Identification.

To change your DRM settings

Right click on content that is currently being displayed by Microsoft Silverlight and select Silverlight or follow the instructions below to start the Silverlight Configuration tool while offline. 
Select the Playback tab. 
Check or uncheck the Enable download and updates to components required for protected content playback checkbox 
Click the OK button. 
Accessing Silverlight Controls Without Silverlight Content

The Silverlight Configuration settings can be configured without right-clicking Silverlight content by running the Silverlight Configuration tool directly.  See the instructions below to run the Silverlight Configuration tool on your computer. 

In Microsoft Windows:

1.       Click the Start button on the taskbar.

2.       Click All Programs.

3.       From the expanded menu of programs and folders, click on the “Microsoft Silverlight” folder.

4.       Click on the “Microsoft Silverlight” program shown in the “Microsoft Silverlight” folder to open the configuration tool.

Apple Mac OS X:

1.       Open the Finder.

2.       Navigate to Applications.

3.       Double-click the “Microsoft Silverlight” shortcut to open the configuration tool.

Enterprise Administrator Controls

In an enterprise environment, administrators can configure group policy to disable Silverlight updates and DRM playback by following the instructions provided below.  CAUTION: Incorrectly editing the registry may severely damage your system. Before making changes to the registry, you should back up any valued data on the computer. You can also use the Last Known Good Configuration startup option if you encounter problems after manual changes have been applied.

Disabling Silverlight Updates

A registry key HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Silverlight can be created with the Value Name UpdateMode with a Value Type of DWORD and given a value of 0x00000002. This sets the machine to never check for automatic updates, although updates may be provided through other means, such as Microsoft Update.

Disabling Silverlight DRM Playback

A registry key, HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Silverlight, can be created with the Value Name DRMEnabled with a Value Type of REG_DWORD and given a value of 0x00000000. This sets the machine to never download or update components required for protected content playback.

Disabling Silverlight Unique Client Identification

A registry key HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Silverlight can be created with the Value Name EnableClientInformation with a Value Type of REG_DWORD and given a value of 0x00000000. This sets the machine to never provide the unique identifier associated with the Unique Client Identification feature to any Web site regardless of the DRM setting.

Security of your information

Microsoft is committed to protecting the security of your information. We use a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect your information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. For example, the information that is sent to Microsoft when Silverlight automatically updates is stored on computer systems with limited access, which are located in controlled facilities.

Changes to the Privacy Statement

We may occasionally update this privacy statement. When we do, we will revise the "last updated" date at the top of the privacy statement. We encourage you to periodically review this privacy statement to be informed of how Microsoft is protecting your information.

Contact Information

Microsoft welcomes your comments regarding this privacy statement. If you have questions about this statement or believe that we have not adhered to it, please contact us by using our Web form. 

Microsoft Privacy, Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, Washington 98052 • 425-882-8080

