> Microsoft's Connected Experiences feature automatically gathers data from Word and Excel files to train the company's AI models. This feature is turned on by default, meaning user-generated content is included in AI training unless manually deactivated.
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...
A word processor stealing the user's IP by default should carry massive fines in the EU. This is pure deception. 20% of annual revenue should be appropriate.
"In the M365 apps, we do not use customer data to train LLMs. This setting only enables features requiring internet access like co-authoring a document." @Microsoft365 https://twitter.com/Microsoft365/status/1861160874993463648
This seems like a security shit show.
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.
> "To the extent necessary to provide the Services to you and others, to protect you and the Services, and to improve Microsoft products and services, you grant to Microsoft a worldwide and royalty-free intellectual property license to use Your Content, for example, to make copies of, retain, transmit, reformat, display, and distribute via communication tools Your Content on the Services," the clause reads.
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.
Title as of the time of this comment:
> Microsoft Word and Excel AI data scraping slyly switched to enabled by default — the opt-out toggle is not that easy to find
—
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?
I just checked and this is turned off in my installation, but I’m not sure that’s from being EU based, or because my org has disabled it.
Microsoft = Spyware
From the article:
>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.
>To do so, users must actively opt out by finding and disabling the feature in settings
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.
The linked "Services Agreement" doesn't appear to be specific to this "Connected Experiences" thing, but is rather the basic agreement required to use any MS software. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but opting out of this won't restrict MS from having a license to all Your Content?
Does this circumvent Azure Information Protection policies as well? Would be fucking hilarious if it did.
> Microsoft says Word and Excel AI data scraping was not switched to enabled by default (Updated)
This seems to be a misunderstanding.
This would certainly be the cause of lots of GDPR violations, considering the kinds of information processed in Word and Excel. I know our condo's owners association keeps contact information of their members in Excel sheets, that's considered PII. It can also contain sensitive information like who is behind on their monthly contributions and by how much.
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.
servers are already on debian, client PCs left
Is this the correct use of "opt-in?"
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.