Google clearly stated in their blog post they used IE8 and the Bing toolbar with settings that provide user experience data to MS (for the Suggested Sites feature and such). I'm sure Google's toolbar and Chrome phone home if you let them, too.
Unless I'm missing something just running Windows isn't enough for MS to do the kind of data collection Google is claiming.
Unless I'm missing something just running Windows isn't enough for MS to do the kind of data collection Google is claiming.