4w ago

Micro$oft office

Mastodon.

69 comments

It also breaks a ton of non related features if you turn it off
- Only a multi-billion dollar company can provide this kind of service. Incredible. /s
- Hey Copilot, remove everything related to Microsoft Edge.
  Ok. Removing Everything.
  screen goes black
  
  You know I can't let you do that, Dave
  
  Screen goes black
  Apartment starts shaking
  Void starts forming and devouring everything
  Entire universe is deleted from existence
  "It was all Microsoft Edge?"
  "Always has been."

So, if it's on by default and then you turn it off, do they delete all the data they stole from you while you were trying to get to the setting?

I find this kind of thing particularly questionable because I like many people am often dealing with documents and text which I do not have the right to share with anybody even if I wanted to.
- I am sure all the financial institutions and medical organizations are verrrrrry thrilled about this.
  
  I noticed via the link from another comment that "work" and "schools" can turn it off - though not exactly easily.
  Are we heading for a situation like smart TVs, where individuals are wrapped in the net of data collection but companies can pay extra to not be spied on - so they don't kick up enough of a fuss or stop using the vendor.
- I'm pretty sure Microsoft doesn't get to see everything you write or draw in office

Why not call spade a spade. It is Piracy setting not Privacy setting. How come when big corporations pirate it is called AI training whereas for us it is stealing.
- Because they own the lawmakers.
- that gives a bad name to piracy.

If you use Microsoft office for work stuff, how do they get away with this? I get that they can violate your rights as an individual because fuck the consumer you peons don’t get representation from your government representatives, but when you’re working for some other company which has its own ton of lawyers and you use this product, how is Microsoft not getting their shit sued out of them?
- That can be controlled by group policy for corporate installations
  
  Of course it can be. But what if you don’t do that. It’s then just totally fine for Microsoft to gank your IP? Like that’s totally legal and will stand up in court?
  Or what if some employee fucks with their settings? Sure you can fire the employee but what about the IP Microsoft now has? It’s all good for them to use that?
  Same if I just print out a bunch of documents, walk into Microsoft’s offices and hand it to them. Sure my company can fire me, maybe even sue me. But that doesn’t make the IP suddenly fair game. Even by just looking at it, Microsoft could potentially open themselves up to legal trouble.
  So I don’t see how any of this is legal.
- It's manageable through GPO and off by default in Enterprise and Education like the other unconscionable shit I guess.
  
  Or maybe the guys in the company doing the gpo's need to update their certification so they learn this shit....
  Just guessing, I'm a Linux guy in a Linux company. Maybe the way I worded the comment was disingenuous, but when Microsoft is so unethical I am using the "to quoque" logical fallacy to justify it

I'm sure it's disabled at hospitals by default to prevent exporting protected patient information. Right?
- I work in government. We have third-party IT services, and we're legally required to take the lowest bid.
  They can't handle setting up an email address without fucking up 19 times. There's no way they'll be disabling this for the whole city, so we're going to be illegally sharing information because it's the default setting.

That setting and Microsoft's "Connected Experiences" predate the current AI nonsense. Here's a list of connected experiences the OneNote app sent me to when I tapped "Learn More". It's all stuff that does some degree of analysis on your data, so somebody probably thought treating AI as a "connected experience" made sense.
- ...wow

There was literally a movie about this, the evil corp resembled Microsoft, right down to a Bill Gates lookalike CEO. Miguel de Icasa was in it with Ryan Phillips
- Antitrust (2001) staring Ryan Phillippe
  
  Phillippe.
  
  Thank you, yes, I'm learning to hate autocorrect .....

They'll just turn it back on with an update in a couple weeks.

only microsoft would nest "Trust Center Settings" in the "Options -> Trust Center" panel. or even worse, put "Privacy Settings" as a sub-menu of "Privacy Options".
- But FOSS has bad UX!!!

Just click this setting! ... at the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard.'
Why would you pay this much money to be treated this badly?
- Haha..pay

We word with government data that can never be touched by third parties, can never leave the country either. We take great care with that
Also: Government here stores most of its in Microsoft services...

It's not JUST that. I've had to disable it in the past for something, can't remember what. Something had broken. But that's why it's not called AI services.
Why they don't separate it into different options I don't know. Or rather it's obvious.
- Why they don't separate it into different options I don't know.
  Because they don't want you turning it off. I seriously doubt they'll actually let you turn it off.