Concerns about user data privacy have arisen following the mention of the “Connected Experiences” option in Microsoft’s productivity-focused Office apps. This feature, which analyzes user content to provide suggestions and recommendations, has raised questions about whether Microsoft uses customer data to train its AI models.
Microsoft clarified that it does not use customer data to train its AI models. In response to a post on large language models (LLM).
The issue was with the “Connected Experiences” privacy setting, an optional feature in Microsoft Office. In a blog post describing the feature, Microsoft explained that Connected Experiences analyzes users’ Office content to provide design recommendations, editing suggestions, data insights, and more. However, the company did not explicitly state whether user data was used for other purposes, such as training AI models. Additionally, the feature is enabled by default in Office and users must manually disable it to disable it.
A post from handle X of nixCraft, a forum for Linux and Unix users, has raised concerns about data integrity within Microsoft Office. In response, Microsoft clarified via its official Microsoft 365 ID that: “In M365 apps, we do not use customer data to train LLMs. This setting only enables features that require Internet access, such as co-authoring a document.
Frank Shaw, head of communications at Microsoft, further addressed the issue of connected experiences in an article on social media platform Bluesky. Responding to claims that Office deletes users’ documents unless they opt out, Shaw said those claims were false, adding: “Following the link for more information makes that clear.”
