The news comes after the firm’s Connected Experiences which comprehends user data from Word and Excel came under fire when it was set as a default setting. Many felt this might be the tech giant’s way of snooping on data for the purpose of AI training.
Microsoft Office was called out for its sneaky behavior by one user who goes by the name nixCraft. This is where the company was slammed for turning on the opt-out offer that scrapes user data from both Excel and Word. Any material extracted would be used for training, the user added.
The post which was published on X shared further how users need to manually uncheck it if they wish to opt out. If it’s a writer who makes use of MS Word quite often for various tasks like blogs and novels, you might wish to switch it off. This is because your work will no longer be protected with copyrights as Microsoft has full access to it, the user added.
The news and accusations were certainly alarming which forced Microsoft to step in and clear the air. It confirmed that none of its Microsoft 365 apps use client data for training large language models. It also shared how such settings only enable those offerings that need internet access like when you want to co-author documents.
At the year’s start, we saw how LinkedIn came under fire for similar types of scrutiny related to toggling on features that enable firms to scrape user data for the sake of training AI systems. We also know about how the UK’s Commissioner’s Office stopped the platform from engaging in that. What is interesting is how the platform still scrapes data belonging to US users by its default settings. Users have the choice to disable this by going to Settings and then Data Privacy and then pressing on the tab for Generative AI Improvement to restrict it.
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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World
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