PSA: Microsoft may be training on your private data without your knowledge

[yesfitz]

Microsoft refuted this claim: https://x.com/Microsoft365/status/1861160874993463648

"In the M365 apps, we do not use customer data to train LLMs. This setting only enables features requiring internet access like co-authoring a document." -@Microsoft365

[dmonitor]

They wouldn't have to combat misinformation if they actually told users what the switches turned on/off instead of vague descriptions that could plausibly allow them to do whatever the hell they want.

[sherburt3]

File>Options>Trust Centre (left panel)>Trust Centre Settings (button)>Privacy Options (left panel)>Privacy Settings (button)>uncheck "Turn on optional connected experiences"

Wow

[ashton314]

I don’t have access to any Windows machines. Otherwise, I’d be tempted to turn this on and pump it full of Markov-chain generated slop.

How big would the damage be if a few percent of their userbase did this?

[trod1234]

This wouldn't have an impact.

There would inevitably be a classifier that acts as a filter pre-training to identify slop and ignore it.

[dole]

I'd imagine mostly to the productivity of the sloppers. Considering this looks like a Windows Office-wide default opt-in, I feel you'd have difficulty hitting 1% userbase.

[dmonitor]

https://xkcd.com/743/

[derelicta]

Microsoft is a powerful company, they know themselves above the Law. So why would they stop?