Microsoft denied allegations on Wednesday that it uses customer data from its Microsoft 365 applications such as Word and Excel to train artificial intelligence (AI) models.
The company’s response came after some users expressed concerns on social media that Microsoft was using their data to train AI models without their permission.
Also, read| AI At Everyone’s Fingertips, That Isn’t Too Far: Microsoft’s Mustafa Suleyman
According to Microsoft’s email to Reuters, the allegations are untrue. The company stated that it does not use customer data from Microsoft 365 consumer and commercial applications to train its large language models.
Microsoft‘s spokesperson stated that the company is committed to protecting its customers’ data and being transparent about how it uses their information.
Instead, the company uses a feature called “connected experiences” to enable features such as co-authoring and cloud storage.
Also, read| Beware: Scammers Exploit Microsoft 365 Admin Portal For Sextortion Emails
The “connected experiences” feature has been a topic of discussion on social media with some users pointing out that Microsoft requires users to opt out of the feature. However, Microsoft has clarified that this feature has no connection to how the company trains its large language models.
Heads up: Microsoft Office, like many companies in recent months, has slyly turned on an “opt-out” feature that scrapes your Word and Excel documents to train its internal AI systems. This setting is turned on by default, and you have to manually uncheck a box in order to opt… pic.twitter.com/wUfhBjcMOR
— nixCraft 🐧 (@nixcraft) November 24, 2024
Thanks for sharing @nixcraft.
Everyone else: You can disable this with a configuration profile in Intune -> Settings Catalog
Just double-check if your company needs any of the features listed here and act accordingly: https://t.co/dihkQncySV#MSIntune https://t.co/Fi28QgZBHu pic.twitter.com/KhLTgw07zl
— Ugur Koc (@UgurKocDe) November 24, 2024
The concerns about data privacy and AI model training are not new. Many people are worried that companies are using their personal data without their permission to train AI models.
Opt out of Microsoft scraping your personal data in Microsoft Office:
– Open preferences in each app: ⌘ + ,
– Privacy
– Manage Connected Experiences
– Unclick all pic.twitter.com/ZLAnhNtK8U— Michael Fritzell (Asian Century Stocks) (@MikeFritzell) November 26, 2024