Still editing Maggie. Mad respect to Stephanie, our editor, for sticking with this and seeing the potential there, because right now I’m slightly embarrassed at having turned in such crappy draft before.
Onto more important matters.
Microsoft snuck AI into the latest version of Word. By default Microsoft sits there and scans all of your documents. Everything you write. They are supposedly doing this through Connected Experiences.
Connected experiences that analyze your content are experiences that use your Office content to provide you with design recommendations, editing suggestions, data insights, and similar features. For example, PowerPoint Designer or Translator.
I have seen several people recommending turning these Connected Experiences off because now they are being used to train the AI. Microsoft really doesn’t want the user to turn these off. They buried it pretty far in the Options menu and they attached a whole bunch of functions to them. In some cases, turning them off may prevent you from printing.
Here is a list of everything Connected Experiences supposedly does.
If you choose to turn them off in the MS Word, go to File > Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > Privacy Options > Privacy Settings > Uncheck Connected Experiences.
If you have additional information, please share in the comments.
And that is my PSA for today.
I wonder if government agencies using MS Word are aware that AI is reading their files. BRB, gotta turn mine off!
What???! First?!
Wondering if this applies to their professional suite? I work in healthcare software, so that’s a hard NO on allowing this. I would assume corporate is aware, but I’m going to research it too. Surely they can’t be slipping this into our suite, although I do have that annoying co-pilot window now. We have govt contracts (the VA). What a damn nightmare that would be if anyone not allowed under HIPAA ended up seeing healthcare data on veterans.
This was my first thought! I will have to check my work version
Our company contracted to have our own AI created based on some other AI (ChatGPT or something like it). Once they got it up and running and it had learned enough (I guess), they shut off its access to the Internet and then deployed it to the company. So I’m assuming that the Connected Experience is tying into our company-specific AI instead of going out to Microsoft’s AI.
They had a tech talk kind of thing about it. Everyone was gushing about how useful it was and I was just “eh”. Still haven’t used it.
I’d be pretty confident it’s turned on by default on all versions
Thanks for the update. Highly recommend that anyone who is a student (especially if they are working on research papers or their thesis) seriously consider turning these off. Depending on the institution, this could be grouped in the plagiarism bucket. Just a suggestion
Wow. Thanks. I turned it off, too.
We stopped using the MS office suite a couple of years ago when they kept insisting we had to “upgrade” to the cloud based version, which we would not one but pay a yearly fee to use. Nope. We now use Libre office, which is free and close enough to the Office functionality that there was almost no learning curve. We also quit using Google and Explorer and went to Firefox. It’s getting harder and harder to maintain any sort of hold on our info. Next steps? Who knows, maybe back to a typewriter and snail mail or…gasp…a pen and paper! LOL!
+1 – LibreOffice and Firefox
I switched to OpenOffice many years ago when I was a college student and didn’t want to pay even the discounted student rates for ms office. Then a little later I moved to Libre office and never looked back.
Heartful thanks!
I appreciate the heads-up and the info.
Thankfully, I’m not using Word, though I will have to figure this out when Apple does something similar…
(Not expecting you to do it for me! I will make my son, the IT guy, tell me how.)
I think you can load Word on Macs, right? I wonder if it ties into Apple’s AI, too, or still goes to Microsoft’s. Or maybe the two AIs fight over it. 😉
Yes, as part of the MS Office package for Mac.
Not sure how one AI reacts to a different AI since they are all algorithms from different companies. Companies may use the same code, but it could be in different order from one company to another.
Microsoft has long had its own AI development program and it will almost certainly only use its own exclusively, though it may not differ substantially from other offerings. It should be customized for smooth response on all of its apps. On Mac, I just turned it all off and found a link that said it applies to all 5 apps once changed on any of the five. I remember Word, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, and PowerPoint. I’m not sure if it applies to Edge. That’s all of the Office 365 apps.
“In some cases, turning them off may prevent you from printing.”
I wonder what happens in closed environments. We have computers that aren’t connected to the Internet, so I wonder what happens in those situations. Those tend to have the Enterprise version of Windows installed, though, not Home or Business edition, so rules are probably different.
The more they try to connect everything to the cloud and/or make it dependent on the cloud, I wonder how they address closed environments.
I don’t have my personal computer on the cloud. I wonder what would happen if a computer was not on the cloud, has internet connection, and all the AI connections are turned off, if you could still print?
It would be interesting to find out.
I cannot find “Options” under “File.” But I am using the Mac version. Anyone knows anything about this?
Preferences > Privacy> Manage Connected Experiences (it’s at the bottom)
On the Mac version, go to Word> Privacy> Connected Experiences> Manage Connected Experiences
Oops!
On the Mac version, go to Word> Preferences>Privacy> Connected Experiences> Manage Connected Experiences
Thank you for sharing how to turn this off on Macs!
I’m still using WordPerfect. They’re going to have to pluck it from my cold, dead hands.
P.s. the AL make NO crappy drafts. Just Initial Tippy Toe drafts that everyone knows will need tweaking.
Are you a lawyer?
My brother is a lawyer and still uses WordPerfect. I guess it’s a staple for lawyers??? Until he said that (and that was a decade or two ago) I didn’t even realize WordPerfect was still around.
If like me, you don’t use Word much, but live in Excel… same steps. Turning it off in one MS 365 app turns it off in all. And it is on by default.
@mz: I loved WP. I still have my copy with the multitude of 5.25 floppies sitting on a shelf. Word is but a pale imitation. And we won’t even mention Lotus 123.
I miss LotusWrite! I had it on my Packard Bell Laptop from 1992.
Also my family started using WordPrefect on our Atari 1040ST which was an actual computer. every few months they nailed us 3.5 floppies to upgrade to free!
Viva Libre Office!
I know all the techies supposedly love AI and we are supposed to be SO EXCITED, but really, no one asked for this. It gives me the creeps and I just. don’t. want. it. in. everything.
I saw a comment recently on a tech forum (Ars Technica, maybe?) that said AI was a solution in search of a problem. And I can attest that every website chatbot that I’ve used has been absolutely useless. Yet every piece of work software or SAAS that I have keeps trying to push it at me. I think the problem is, once one company started investing heavily in it, all the rest had to do the same, just so they didn’t get left behind. And none of them wants to admit it’s a failure, or be the first to abandon it, just in case…
Wow, that is burying it deep.
I haven’t used my MS Office on my Mac computer in a while. I might need to do that soon. I use Outlook more than Word, Excel, or the others.
However, on my work computer, I mainly use Edge, Excel, and sometimes PowerPoint. IT usually takes care of the software permissions.
The good news is that if you turn it off in one program of Office it will do it for all of them.
i just had a snitch at Google about a new tracking feature they’ve installed on some co outers with their latest update. I un-installed Chome. I’m using duckduckgo now.
good luck.
BIG +1 on DuckDuckGo. The library I used to work for made all public access computers use this for the sake of patron privacy years ago.
If you can find it … in DuckDuckGo.
Activate the VPN.
Costs nothing.
On Macs, it’s under Word / preferences / privacy.
I’m using Open Office. I don’t think that it is bugged but I might be wrong.
It might be time to look into Libre Office and Open Office’s takes on integration of AI.
Thanks for letting us know, I am off to turn it off. 😀 I am not using microsoft office as I prefere LibreOffice but I have files being saved to cloud automatically as I am backup freak (it takes few times losing all your text before you start to save after every few sentences :D) and I guess that they are scanning those files as well.
Thank you so much for this info!! I turned it off on my work computer. I’m not sure I can on the cloud version I’m forced to use for my PhD. The school claims it is private and secure for saving the data of research participants, but now I wonder…
You can always buy Microsoft Office as a one-time, one-computer purchase ($130-150). Turn off the AI functions. Don’t use Word while online and allow Office to update itself only occasionally. Pass versions between computers via thumb drives. Save to your computer or to a removable disk drive instead of the cloud. A pain in the butt, but it keeps your stuff private and safe from the world.
This is my path.
I would still check the setting every time you do a Windows or Office update. I wouldn’t trust Microsoft to always remember the setting, especially if they make a significant change to the OS or Office suite.
I just heard about this on FB but hadn’t heard that turning it off could affect printing. I recently copied and pasted my therapy posts from TalkSpace into Word, never imagining that my privacy could be violated by Microsoft.
I hope that a large number of users complain.
thanks…we use Office 365 in pur org just checked and sure enough it was connected. i have highly sensitiv stuff on my computer. So thanks disabled it now, and will inform others.
Thanks for your PSA about Microsoft Word. I have removed the “automatic checkmarks” on the indicated boxes. Wish I had known they were there, as I have been using Word lately, more than usual as I prepared some documents and notes for an upcoming trip to my lawyer. The insidious loss of privacy is irksome, I appreciate any information provided to lessen this invasion.
I haven’t used any products from Microsoft in so many years.
I use Ubuntu as OS and Libre Office for anything document related, and you can use Libre in Windows also and it’s completely free. You can donate if you want but it is a free licence. It does everything Microsoft Office does.
Thank you for the information!
Now if we could just get rid of Copilot from Windows 11…
When MS moved to subscription based apps like Adobe did, I knew that I wouldn’t be upgrading my Office suite any more. So I use an old version of Office on my Win 10 laptop. Hopefully it will continue working as long as I don’t upgrade operating systems.
Windows 10 goes end-of-life on October 31, 2025. That means they won’t push security updates for it anymore. Unless you intend to disconnect the laptop from the Internet at that time, then you’re leaving yourself open to future exploits. There will be a lot of people still running Win10 but without updates, which means new exploits will be discovered and shared amongst the bad guys but without a mechanism for it to be fixed. So a con to that approach, unless you do disconnect.
mwahahaha. let the robots learn how to talk about stress in structural materials and verbal descriptions of how a building is built. I am the most boring professional word user ever. OPT IN. They see stress and think it’s juicy, then get confused by all the concrete.
I am on a Mac and I don’t have “options” under my “File.” I searched help and it said to go to Word then preferences then security, but there is nothing there about connected experiences. Perhaps my word at word is too old…
On Mac, it’s “Preferences > Privacy> Manage Connected Experiences (it’s at the bottom)” according to helpful previous commenters 🙂
Don’t forget to turn it off in Excel & the other Office apps
Thx for the heads-up. I have a purchased (old) version of MS Office that I own and don’t pay a yearly fee for, but thought I’d check anyway, and yes, it is there, and selected.
I opened a doc in Word, clicked File, >options, >more, >general, >privacy settings, and found 3 instances that I had to uncheck to turn it off. Wow, talk about buried!
UNBELIEVABLE, thank you.
FYI, my business version of word provided by my academic medical center does not have connected experiences 👍 👍
🤦♀️
one option is to use LibreOffice. a a private, free and open source office suite. it might miss a few fancier MS Office features, but I’ve yet to trait have an issue with it.
Thank you for letting us know about this. I just turned it off, and you weren’t kidding about it being buried deeply!