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I can't say whether the blog is correct or not, as I haven't seen the actual network traffic, but there are privacy controls that the author probably hasn't configured [1]. If it was configured correctly, Designer wouldn't even be available. So it's not as though every user of PowerPoint will have their data collected by Microsoft.

[1] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/deployoffice/privacy/manag...

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Still, Designer should display a notice that this is happening on first use (and until the user checks “Don’t show this anymore”, and maybe auto-turn that on again once a year), because a normal user doesn’t necessarily realize that this is happening. You shouldn’t have to be an IT/Office expert to have your privacy being respected.

This is literally what it does today: the first time you use Designer or some other "intelligence" feature you get prompted to confirm that you're okay sending your data to Microsoft to use the feature, with a link to privacy policy and everything.

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