PSA re MS Word Tracking

[VallesMarineris]

Microsoft has quietly changed a default in Word to opt users into their tracking system, which includes their AI scraper. Here's the report on Medium:

https://medium.com/illumination/ms-word-is-using-you-to-train-ai-86d6a4d87021

Their lede:

Microsoft Office, like many companies in recent months, has slyly turned on an “opt-out” feature that scrapes your Word and Excel documents to train its internal AI systems. This setting is turned on by default, and you have to manually uncheck a box in order to opt out.

The article linked above has instructions for turning off this "feature" in both Windows and MacOS.

Stay safe, everyone.

VM

 

[SyleusSnow]

Article is behind a soft paywall. Here are the steps described:

On a Windows computer, follow these steps to turn off “Connected Experiences”: File > Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > Privacy Options > Privacy Settings > Optional Connected Experiences > Uncheck box: “Turn on optional connected experiences”

Except on my MS Office (o365 subscription, all updated) there is no selection for optional connected experiences. Just a checkbox to enable or disable all connected experiences, and that disables both dictation and and text to speech, which I use extensively.

Perhaps Office in other regions has this "disable optional" setting, or it's coming in next month's update.

 

[shelleycat1]

I've got the connected experience turned off, luckily. The text to speech still works on my o365.

Thank you VM for the warning.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Worked for me and many thanks.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Writer61]

Thanks for sharing.

Less relevant here but the same option exists in Powerpoint and Excel (at least it does in Mac version of Office 365, almost certainly in Windows too).