Here’s your friendly reminder to plow through the labyrinth of menus in Microsoft Word to turn off all “connected experiences”. That’s their euphemism for scraping every letter you write to train their AI.
Here’s how you do it. 🧵
Here’s how you do it. 🧵
Comments
Two facts are certain:
- "connected experiences" have been around for years, longer than the current AI hype
AI training is a difficult topic, and I'm looking forward to emerging laws.
Any healthy AI development should be explicitly consent-driven and hard opt-in. It should NOT be nine hoops that are ALL DIFFERENT in order to opt out.
What precisely do they do? I’d love a list because I absolutely can’t find one anywhere.
And just because they’ve been going for a while doesn’t mean we can’t turn it off now!
Word works perfectly fine without them on so why give Microsoft data for free?
Here's a list with the connected services. They do appear to be of some - very limited - use. There's also a page explaining the data usage.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-apps/privacy/connected-experiences
While these functionalities are certainly useful, I am in no way satisfied with the vagueness surrounding the word “analyze”.
In the absence of legislation we MUST assume corporate malevolence until proven otherwise.
My (badly worded) point was that the same scrutiny can also be applied to all of MS Office. If they want to train AI, they can just do so, regardless of the connected experiences.
I only use Word, nothing else from the suite, so my mileage may vary with this.
But I also don’t think we have to roll over and just accept that Microsoft can do whatever it wants to us. If they want to train AI they must feed off of us, and I have no intention of being a docile meal.
Left click on “File”.
Look alllllll the way down at the bottom, beneath Close, to where “More…” is written in a noticeably small typeface. Very meek. Very demure.
Left click on “More….”
Left click on “Options”.
Now a Big Window popped up! And it’s full of options that might seem intimidating you have no need to mess with. Ignore everything and find “Trust Center”, again, all the way at the bottom.
Left click on “Trust Center”.
Next to it is a weirdly passive plea to “help keep your documents safe and your computer secure and healthy” as if your laptop is a Tamagotchi that needs saving.
Below you’ll see “Microsoft Trust Center” in delicious hyperlink blue!
Click on it?
You’ve opened a webpage to Microsoft.cawm what they try to show you a video and blog post about why AI is actually very safe and very good. Please Trust Us 🥹🥹🥹
Go back to Word where the Word Options menu should still be open and find the button to the right that says “Trust Center Settings…”
Left click on this button.
Find “Privacy Options” on the left-hand sidebar below “File Block Settings”.
Left click on “Privacy Options”.
We don’t have to lay down so they can trample us.