I went into this article skeptical (due to the title, ZDNet, and how often unreasonable Windows 10 complaints get posted) but this one seems legitimate.

The WaitList.dat really does seem like a legitimate threat to security and privacy. I don't currently have a touch device to test the including Powershell script, but I'd be interested to hear what others find.

I actually understand why Microsoft is recording this information (since it helps them understand the user's sentence structure/words, to make recognition more accurate) but it is also a huge treasure trove of personal information that many wouldn't have been aware of.

I wonder if there is a way to store this information more securely?

This file is the windows search service index file. Here is a parser you can use to see what it does index.

https://github.com/B2dfir/wlrip

There may be other files that read this, but it was found with a quick search.

Important points:

> text from every document and email which is indexed by the Windows Search Indexer service is stored in WaitList.dat

> This doesn't include only metadata, but the actual document's text.

Yikes. I don't know what is worse, the fact that this file indexes _Everything_ if you have a touch tablet or this buzzword clickbait title

Security, Convenience, Cost - Pick two, at most.

So the Windows search uses an index to make search faster. Amazing discovery!