Microsoft has quietly rolled out an AI feature that automatically accesses your data in Word and Excel documents.
The company introduced Connected Experiences on all its Microsoft 365 apps last month.
It is enabled by default if you have Windows X or later and requires users to manually disable the feature to disable it.
Connected Experiences analyzes users’ content to provide design recommendations, grammar and editing suggestions, while also providing relevant links to more information.
The data includes information such as the user’s search history, app usage, and location to personalize results when Connected Experiences is active.
Users have criticized the new feature, accusing Microsoft of using the 365 apps’ data to train its AI models, but a company spokesperson told DailyMail.com that “these claims are inaccurate.”
However, there is a clause in Microsoft’s Services Agreement that states that users agree to grant the company “a worldwide and royalty-free intellectual property license to use your content.”
To disable the tool, users must open their Office app and go to the Account tab under the File section, select Account Privacy and Manage Settings.
Microsoft has quietly rolled out its Connected Experiences feature, which gives the tool automatic access to user data
From there, the option is available to select which types of connected experiences they want to use, or they can disable the feature completely.
“Connected experiences play an important role in improving productivity by integrating your content with resources available on the web,” Microsoft told DailyMail.com.
“These features enable applications to provide a more intelligent and personalized service,” the company added.
Microsoft admits on its site that it obtains information about users from data shared by its affiliates, affiliates and third parties — although the company has not specified who they are.
The processing of this data is collected using “both automated and manual (human) methods,” Microsoft says place.
While the company claims it doesn’t use this data to train its AI models, it specifically adds: ‘For example, to build, train and improve the accuracy of our automated processing methods (including artificial intelligence or AI), we manually assess a part of the output produced by the automated methods, based on the underlying data.’
The Connected Experiences feature is activated by keywords that indicate which websites to suggest to help with the user’s research or by links that can provide additional material.
For example, if you’re working on an Excel chart, the assistant might ask you to “find relevant stock data for this chart,” or if you’re writing a memo, the assistant might suggest you “check grammar” or “commit an online message.” add’. image in this Word document.’
It also tracks the images and videos that users search for to provide more accurate online content suggestions for other photos that might be useful, as well as templates, 3D models, and other relevant videos.
The Connected Experiences setting requires users to have an Internet connection so they can provide prompts such as grammar and style suggestions in real time.
The user data isn’t used to train AI models, the company said, but it does help the Connected Experience tool provide grammar and style suggestions and provide relevant links to the information used in the 365 apps.
Some people commented on the feature on X, with one person saying Connected Experiences wasn’t enabled when they looked.
“I suspect the default comes from one of the settings you choose when setting up Windows,” the person wrote, while another said: “It’s disabled on my computer and I haven’t touched any settings there before.”
Despite Microsoft saying the feature can be easily disabled, some users have complained that they don’t know how to disable it on a Mac.
“I’ve followed every instruction posted online, but I can’t get rid of it or be sure beyond a shadow of a doubt that I’ve opted out of any sneaky malarkey,” someone wrote on X.
To disable the feature on a Mac, users must first follow the same steps as on a PC by going to the Account section under File and clicking the Account Privacy and Manage Settings tab.
Macs require an extra step by going to the Connected Experiences section and unchecking the boxes for the features you don’t want to use.
However, if you are signed into a Microsoft account through your school or workplace, users likely won’t need to take any steps to disable the feature, as this is done automatically through the administrator.
The feature also cannot be set up automatically if an organization uses an advanced PowerShell setting called Block Content Analysis Services or Double Key Encryption to protect files and emails.