Microsoft is furiously denying accusations that it is scraping Microsoft 365 user data to train its AI models.
The grumblings started when users reported on social media that they had been automatically signed up to the company’s “connected experiences” feature and this was used to train AI data.
Microsoft has declared the concerns to be “untrue” and says it is not using the “opt-out” model deployed by rivals including OpenAI among others.
Where Did the AI Scraping Rumor Come From?
According to 9to5 Mac, it was a post on X that started the rumor and it quickly spread concern.
An account called nixCraft posted: “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 out.”
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The post added a call to action, especially for written content creators: “If you are a writer who uses MS Word to write any proprietary content (blog posts, novels, or any work you intend to protect with copyright and/or sell), you’re going to want to turn this feature off immediately.”
The poster also called the alleged data collection “unethical” in a second post as the first post racked up 545.7K views. It added instructions as to how to opt out of the new AI privacy agreement.
Microsoft Claim Misunderstanding
Microsoft has been absolutely clear in its response and told Reuters: “These claims are untrue. Microsoft does not use customer data from Microsoft 365 consumer and commercial applications to train foundational large language models.”
The statement also clarified that that the “connected experiences” “…enables features such as co-authoring and cloud storage”, says the news service.
Sneaky Clauses and Confusing Language
Big Tech does often publish T&Cs that are purposefully complex and bamboozle users either by their language or length.
There is even an organisation, Terms of Service; Didn’t Read (TOSDR), which has created a browser add-on, to help users to decipher exactly what they are signing up to.
In this case, though, it seems Microsoft isn’t trying to deceive anyone.
