Microsoft Office 365: Difference between revisions
I opened up an article to describe the privacy issues I'm currently experiencing with office 365. |
Moving the paragraph about forced upsell from the 'Microsoft' to the 'Microsoft Office 365' page. |
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== Microsoft Copilot (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) == | ==Microsoft Copilot (Word, PowerPoint, Excel)== | ||
In the current version of Office 365, the default option for Microsoft Copilot is turned on. You can turn it off in the Office applications' options. | In the current version of Office 365, the default option for Microsoft Copilot is turned on. You can turn it off in the Office applications' options. | ||
== Storing Files locally (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) == | === Forced Upsell === | ||
In January 2025, YouTuber Atomic Shrimp reported<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYVPThx7yss</ref> that Microsoft had enacted a "forced upsell" of 365's new AI Copilot feature. Users with basic accounts (now called "Classic"), such as Shrimp himself, had been informed their subscription fee was going up, but that they would enjoy new features as a result, including Copilot. In his efforts to disable Copilot, Shrimp subsequently discovered that Microsoft now offered "Classic" plans, identical to the old basic plans both in features and in subscription fee. The option to downgrade to Classic, however, was only visible to enterprise users, not to personal users. In essence Microsoft upgraded users' plans without their consent and disabled the option to downgrade, forcing the user to contact Microsoft support in order to opt out of the newly introduced Copilot AI features. The forceful upgrade was at the user's expense, and the downgrading process through support, according to Shrimp, was very time consuming. It is possible to downgrade a personal account through the website without contacting support. If you go to the first page of the cancellation process, there should be an option to downgrade to the "Classic" plan. | |||
==Storing Files locally (Word, PowerPoint, Excel)== | |||
Since the intruduction of Office 365, saving files locally gets more and more difficuld to execute. Back in the days of Office 201X, you'd get the expected saving dialog with a pop-up to browse your computer and choose your file storage location. This is now multiple clicks away and it's easier to store something on OneDrive since Microsoft likes to push you to use its' cloud service. | Since the intruduction of Office 365, saving files locally gets more and more difficuld to execute. Back in the days of Office 201X, you'd get the expected saving dialog with a pop-up to browse your computer and choose your file storage location. This is now multiple clicks away and it's easier to store something on OneDrive since Microsoft likes to push you to use its' cloud service. | ||
To midigate this somewhat, you can go into options -> saving and there set the check mark on "save locally as default". It still takes multiple clicks to save a file, but the cloud options are at least a bit less intrusive. | To midigate this somewhat, you can go into options -> saving and there set the check mark on "save locally as default". It still takes multiple clicks to save a file, but the cloud options are at least a bit less intrusive. | ||
== Outlook 365 == | ==Outlook 365== | ||
=== Issues with email adresses that stem from Microsoft === | ===Issues with email adresses that stem from Microsoft=== | ||
In the current version of Outlook (and for about 1 year now), *@hotmail.com adresses cannot simply be added to your existing outlook configuration. It will sync once and then pop up a dialog asking you to sign into microsoft for "authentification". If you don't allow this sign-in, the synchronization will not work claiming an authentification problem. It is obvious however that microsoft just wants to link your (other) mail adresses (that originated from microsoft) to your account to collect more data. This is especially sneaky because at no point you're made aware that this has nothing to do with your mail account but simply with microsoft wanting to link your accounts. | In the current version of Outlook (and for about 1 year now), *@hotmail.com adresses cannot simply be added to your existing outlook configuration. It will sync once and then pop up a dialog asking you to sign into microsoft for "authentification". If you don't allow this sign-in, the synchronization will not work claiming an authentification problem. It is obvious however that microsoft just wants to link your (other) mail adresses (that originated from microsoft) to your account to collect more data. This is especially sneaky because at no point you're made aware that this has nothing to do with your mail account but simply with microsoft wanting to link your accounts. | ||
Revision as of 10:05, 27 January 2025
Microsoft Copilot (Word, PowerPoint, Excel)
In the current version of Office 365, the default option for Microsoft Copilot is turned on. You can turn it off in the Office applications' options.
Forced Upsell
In January 2025, YouTuber Atomic Shrimp reported[1] that Microsoft had enacted a "forced upsell" of 365's new AI Copilot feature. Users with basic accounts (now called "Classic"), such as Shrimp himself, had been informed their subscription fee was going up, but that they would enjoy new features as a result, including Copilot. In his efforts to disable Copilot, Shrimp subsequently discovered that Microsoft now offered "Classic" plans, identical to the old basic plans both in features and in subscription fee. The option to downgrade to Classic, however, was only visible to enterprise users, not to personal users. In essence Microsoft upgraded users' plans without their consent and disabled the option to downgrade, forcing the user to contact Microsoft support in order to opt out of the newly introduced Copilot AI features. The forceful upgrade was at the user's expense, and the downgrading process through support, according to Shrimp, was very time consuming. It is possible to downgrade a personal account through the website without contacting support. If you go to the first page of the cancellation process, there should be an option to downgrade to the "Classic" plan.
Storing Files locally (Word, PowerPoint, Excel)
Since the intruduction of Office 365, saving files locally gets more and more difficuld to execute. Back in the days of Office 201X, you'd get the expected saving dialog with a pop-up to browse your computer and choose your file storage location. This is now multiple clicks away and it's easier to store something on OneDrive since Microsoft likes to push you to use its' cloud service.
To midigate this somewhat, you can go into options -> saving and there set the check mark on "save locally as default". It still takes multiple clicks to save a file, but the cloud options are at least a bit less intrusive.
Outlook 365
Issues with email adresses that stem from Microsoft
In the current version of Outlook (and for about 1 year now), *@hotmail.com adresses cannot simply be added to your existing outlook configuration. It will sync once and then pop up a dialog asking you to sign into microsoft for "authentification". If you don't allow this sign-in, the synchronization will not work claiming an authentification problem. It is obvious however that microsoft just wants to link your (other) mail adresses (that originated from microsoft) to your account to collect more data. This is especially sneaky because at no point you're made aware that this has nothing to do with your mail account but simply with microsoft wanting to link your accounts.