Is Microsoft using your drafts to train its AI?
There has been some chat on the web that Microsoft is scraping your drafts to train its artificial intelligence (AI). So, we’ve done the digging so that you don’t have to, and spent time sorting through the terms, conditions and policies available on Microsoft’s website. Unfortunately, and unsurprisingly the answer is not crystal clear.
It’s complicated by the fact that it depends what country you’re in, what program/s you’re using, what subscription you have… etc! BUT Microsoft’s Australian Service agreement, that seems to apply with supplements to all Microsoft products used in Australia, says (with our emphasis):
To the extent necessary to provide you and others with the Services, to protect you and the Services, and to improve Microsoft products and services, you grant to Microsoft a worldwide and royalty-free intellectual property licence to use Your Content, for example, to make copies of, retain, transmit, reformat, display and distribute via communication tools Your Content on the Services.
Let’s break that down…
You’re giving Microsoft:
- A worldwide = they can use it everywhere
- Royalty-free = if they make any money from using your work, they won’t pay you anything
- Intellectual property licence = permission to use your intellectual property i.e. potentially anything you create on your computer
So that Microsoft can:
- Use = very broad
- Your Content = this is defined in the Service Agreement as: “your communications with others; postings submitted by you to Microsoft via the Services; and the files, photos, documents, audio, digital works, livestreams and videos that you upload, store, broadcast, create, generate or share through the Services, or inputs that you submit in order to generate content” = everything
- The examples = don’t specifically address training AI, but they don’t preclude it.
Microsoft has been vocal and proactive in speaking about AI, including making promises to take on the legal responsibility for claims made against certain customers using output from its AI. It says it is committed to providing trustworthy AI which they define as secure, safe. While much of what they state across various articles and posts on their site could be open to interpretation, there is no evidence that we have seen that Microsoft is scraping our drafts.
How do I stop it?
Well, you can’t opt out of the licence. If you use Word (or any other Microsoft product) you’re bound by the Service Agreement.
There are certain things you can opt out of, including “Connected Experiences”. However, you may also find some of these experiences useful. Things like translation tools, formatting options, predictive text and creating transcripts etc. Some of these experiences do store your data, but according to Microsoft it’s for the purpose of improving the service. An example they give is if you “ignore” a word or contraction in spellcheck, it remembers your preference so it can improve the service for you. Microsoft says that any data they keep is encrypted.
If you’re still unsure, you can turn off, “Connected Experiences” in your privacy settings.
The answer
So, is Microsoft using your drafts to train its AI? Kind of – but maybe it’s helpful? You’ll have to make your own assessment on that.
And from here on, we’ll keep watching for any changes to Microsoft and other platforms’ policies and terms and conditions.
