Your MS Office Documents Can Be Shared With Microsoft
These days, the standard for technology companies is to roll out, update, change settings, to be on by default (opt-in) and hope you the end user doesn’t notice, doesn’t check, or doesn’t care. It’s up to you, the end user, to constantly review application settings and turn off (opt-out) of settings that you don’t want to use. In the case of today’s post, Microsoft 365 has two settings you need to review.
The Connected Experiences Setting
As part of Microsoft 365, there is a setting called Connected Experiences that sends/shares part of your document information with Microsoft servers. According to Microsoft
Microsoft 365 has a number of helpful features that are backed by cloud-based services, which we call “connected experiences”, that provide essential functionality for those features.
So what do you get as part of the Connected Experiences feature –
- Content analysis tools (PowerPoint Designer, Editor, Dictate, Translator)
- Online content downloads (templates, images, 3D models, weather info in Outlook)
- Other cloud features like co-authoring and online storage integration.
The funny thing is that many basic features continue to work, according to Microsoft’s own Connected Experiences Page, even if you turn off the Connected Experiences function.
Basic functionality of Editor remains available even if you’re not connected to the internet. That same basic functionality also remains available if you decide to disable the use of connected experiences that analyze your content. In both cases, no content or data related to your use of Editor is sent to Microsoft.
The connected Experiences feature is part of all versions of Microsoft 365, so Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS users are all involved with having this feature.
Access The Settings For The Connected Experiences Feature
You may find a need for the functions provided as part of Connected Experiences, but that is not the case for everyone. If you want to review and turn off the settings, follow these steps
- Windows (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook)
- Open any Office app.
- Go to File > Account (or Office Account in Outlook).
- Select Account Privacy > Manage Settings.
- Enable or disable:
- Optional connected experiences
- Connected experiences that analyze your content
- Connected experiences that download online content
- MacOS
- Open an Office app.
- Go to Word/Excel/PowerPoint > Preferences > Privacy.
- Adjust the connected experiences settings.
- iOS (iPhone/iPad)
- Open an Office app.
- Click on your picture on top left of screen > Settings > Privacy Settings.
- Adjust the connected experiences settings.
- Android
- Open an Office app.
- Go to Setting > Privacy Settings .
- Adjust the connected experiences settings.
Keep in mind, you can turn these settings off, and if you find something you use is suddenly “missing”, you can always go back and turn the setting back on.
Access The M365 Settings For Default Saving To OneDrive
The second setting mainly affects Windows users of Microsoft 365. For Windows users, if you have Microsoft 365 and OneDrive, your default file save is in the cloud, in OneDrive. Of Course, Microsoft says this is a feature that allows you to access your files anywhere and also protects your files. However, shouldn’t the location a file is saved be your choice not Microsoft’s?
If you aren’t using OneDrive and you don’t want your files saved to OneDrive, you need to make the following change in settings
- Open one of your applications like word
- Click on options (usually lower left of application)
- In the window that opens click on Save (on the left side)
- Then do the following
- Uncheck AutoSave files stored in the cloud
- Check Save to Computer by default
- Change Default local file location to a location on your pc
Final Thoughts
For many users of Microsoft 365, these settings being on would be beneficial to what they do. However, for many these are settings that they don’t need, or prefer not to have on. Each user should have the say to what is shared with any technology company (not just Microsoft). Having these settings on by default takes that choice away from the user.
Source
- Microsoft – Connected Experiences Support Page
- Microsoft – Connected Experiences In Office
