Microsoft Word and Excel AI data scraping switched to opt-in by default
tomshardware.com
tomshardware.com
To me, having things "opt-in" means they're off and you can turn them on if you want.
If it's "opt-out" it's automatically on, and you can turn it off.
Not to say that Microsoft products respect privacy, but I don't see evidence that user Word/Excel files are being used for training.
The linked services agreement has had the same language (copy/transmit/etc. "to the extent necessary to provide the services") since at least 2015[0], and "connected experiences" seems to group a wide range of integrations; some like dictation/translation probably utilise ML, but that does not mean training on user content.
[0]: https://web.archive.org/web/20150608000921/https://www.micro...
Microsoft has the reputation for villainy that it has because of the the villainy it has done. You not liking it doesn't mean it isn't deserved.
[1] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-apps/privacy...
[2] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-apps/privacy...
"Your privacy is very important for us" when you need to install an extension to have a blank start page (without ads) in Edge.
Official announcements about the outage the last couple days we’re posted there.
Twitter is a hostile platform that requires an account to view. Why does MS365 continue to use it?
Can we disable it by group policy across entire domains?
Surely no business would ever allow Microsoft to 'reformat, display, and distribute' confidential company documents?
Or am I missing something.
However, the terms of service says "To the extent necessary to provide the Services to you and others, [...] and to improve Microsoft products and services". So they're saying they can use your content not just to provide you service, but to provide other people service and to improve all Microsoft products.
That would be me sharing a specific document with a specific person. If their terms sepcified that they would only ""reformat, display, and distribute" to people we personally give permission to then that would be fine, but it doesn't.
If you're sending it to them directly (e.g. emailing a file), then sure. But if Microsoft is hosting it on their website, then I think Microsoft would be displaying it to the person you shared it with.
>If their terms sepcified that they would only ""reformat, display, and distribute" to people we personally give permission to then that would be fine, but it doesn't.
I think you're basically saying the same thing I said. I said it would be fine if the terms said "To the extent necessary to provide the Services to you." I think that has the same effect as what you're saying. I'm not a lawyer though.
The point is not that microsoft is displaying it, it is that they are displaying to a person I have given explicit permision to. They could easily put that in their terms if they wanted to to clarify the point. The fact that they dont shows they want to display it to other people/machines than the ones I give them permission to.
Well, this does make sense in the context of Office 365, OneDrive and the Office web apps in general. (Still dodgy regarding the "worldwide" part but there's no way around that because people can and do expect to access their stuff even while on vacation)
Silently enabling the training of remote AI however? That's not covered under any reasonable interpretation of the above legalese.
Seems clear to me. Use any way Microsoft wants. The “for example” list is not exhaustive nor limiting.
There are other laws protecting things like trade secrets and corporate privacy, so it would indeed be foolish for Microsoft to attempt gathering and selling trade secrets. But the wording gives them carte blanche to do anything not already illegal, including using your Most Awesome Word Template in Word’s collection of templates that they distribute to everyone.
As I laid out in my other comment, I think training AI in particular is covered under the "improving Microsoft products or services" bit of legalese. I do wonder how companies lawyers will respond to this though. They probably thought of that phrase as just allowing Microsoft employees access to documents to see how Word or other pieces of software were being used, or to fix crashes, etc.
> Microsoft Word and Excel AI data scraping slyly switched to enabled by default — the opt-out toggle is not that easy to find
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As a tech person, keeping up with disabling and avoiding all this is becoming exhausting. I can’t imagine any regular non-tech person having any chance at avoiding it.
Is it time to just give up? At what point do you have to accept that the tsunami is here and there’s nothing you can do about it?
Security fatigue is a well known thing in IT. Configuration fatigue where your configurations malevolently switch back on after the options you chose, disabled them is just as bad, resulting in vexatious experiences.
This is the problem when antitrust is not enforced, and regulation has killed all other smaller market participants. It creates dynamics (abuses) that cause societal upheaval which inevitably lead to violence.
Its really stupid, but the people making these decisions are evil people. Every reasonable person knows that actions have consequences.
Around the late 2000's, but maybe it was earlier. The best time to buy msft stock is always right now.
There are not too many pieces of technology these days that intentionally avoid collecting your data in order to be sold to another company.
>To do so, users must actively opt out by finding and disabling the feature in settings. The process requires unchecking the box 'Turn on optional connected experiences' that is enabled by default.
>On a Windows PC, the steps include going to File > Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > Privacy Options > Privacy Settings > Optional Connected Experiences and unchecking the box.
Odd. So, lets say I wrote a article and it is copyrighted and on some newspaper WEB Page. If I understand this completely, in theory, I need to find everyone who uses this version of Word and tell them to disable this feature ?
If so, looks to me the lawyers are going to have a great time with this and will clog the courts for centuries.
This seems to be a misunderstanding.
That's just the first thing I thought of. There must be tons of companies and organisations processing sensitive data in Word and Excel. What about doctor's offices and insurance companies handling medical information? What about banks, financial advisors, lawyers, etc.