Detections
Analytics

18.10.49.1 Ensure 'Enable news and interests on the taskbar' is set to 'Disabled'

Information

This policy setting specifies whether the news and interests feature is allowed on the device.

The recommended state for this setting is: Disabled.

In high-security environments, data must never be shared with third-parties without explicit consent, as it may contain sensitive information. Apps and features such as news and interests on the Windows taskbar should be treated as a possible security risk.

In addition, the app may display inappropriate news and interests within the feed.

Solution

To establish the recommended configuration via GP, set the following UI path to Disabled :

Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\News and interests\Enable news and interests on the taskbar

Note: This Group Policy path is provided by the Group Policy template Feeds.admx/adml that is included with the Microsoft Windows 10 version 21H1 Administrative Templates (or newer).

Impact:

The news and interests feature on the Windows taskbar will not be available on the device.

Note: At time of benchmark publication, this setting does not hide or disable the taskbar menu options for the news and interests feature, however attempting to turn the feature back on does not cause any visible change. It is possible that Microsoft will modify this behavior to 'gray out' the taskbar menu options in a future OS update.

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/27832

Item Details

Category: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

References: 800-53|CM-6, 800-53|CM-7

Plugin: Windows

Control ID: af577af558fd3c5741edf1370cf08b85c5bbbb0f8c4439ec40f70edc643aaacc