Microsoft Office 365 privacy and telemetry


  1. bamajon1974
    Posts : 521
    Win7 Pro X64, Win10 Pro x640
       New #1

    Microsoft Office 365 privacy and telemetry


    @Brink

    Is there a comprehensive thread on tenforums (or reddit or elsewhere) that details various registry tweaks and windows settings to enable/disable telemetry and privacy for Office 365? Tutorials on tenforums give plenty of information about Windows privacy and telemetry settings but not much on Office. Can anyone please help?

    There is some information about increasing privacy and reducing telemetry for the standalone, older versions of office but since 365 is so much more cloud based, do the old settings apply to the newest versions of the 365 Office suites?

    Thanks!
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  3. Brink
    Posts : 68,881
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
       New #2

    You might see if this below may help any for now.

    Using the Diagnostic Data Viewer with Office - Office Support

    View my privacy options in the Microsoft Office Trust Center - Office Support
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  4. bamajon1974
    Posts : 521
    Win7 Pro X64, Win10 Pro x640
    Thread Starter
       New #3

    Brink said:
    You might see if this below may help any for now.

    Using the Diagnostic Data Viewer with Office - Office Support

    View my privacy options in the Microsoft Office Trust Center - Office Support
    Thank you Brink.

    I found some registry tweaks to enable/disable office telemetry from CHEF-KOCK website on GitHub (along with tons of other Windows tweaks). Link is below. There doesn't seem to be any explanation of what these tweaks do. Are they controlled from the privacy settings in office? Are they relevant at all?

    regtweaks/OS independent/Ms Office/Disabel office 16 telemetry at master . CHEF-KOCH/regtweaks . GitHub

    Thanks!
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  6. Brink
    Posts : 68,881
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
       New #4

    I don't know either.
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  7. bamajon1974
    Posts : 521
    Win7 Pro X64, Win10 Pro x640
    Thread Starter
       New #5

    Brink said:
    I don't know either.
    I will ignore the CHEF-KOCH tweaks and just change the privacy settings in the Office Options. Since Office 365 is so cloud dependent, enabling/disabling registry tweaks with no explanation may ruin functionality.

    Thank you!
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  8. bamajon1974
    Posts : 521
    Win7 Pro X64, Win10 Pro x640
    Thread Starter
       New #6

    @Brink

    Update on Office 365 Telemetry

    I need some help/advice on which telemetry settings to enable/disable in Office365 and registry to maintain a reasonable level of privacy while not breaking functionality.

    I found a good collection of registry tweaks posted by CHEF-KOCH (noted in previous posts) at **REMOVED**

    Explanation of tweaks is provided at **REMOVED**

    Below I listed all of the relevant Office365 registry tweaks below with a brief explanation and whether I thought they should be enabled/disabled. Additions/Edits/Comments/Opinions are welcome. Thanks in advance.

    (1) Send personal information to Microsoft *(disabled)* - no data sent
    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common]
    "sendcustomerdata"=dword:00000000

    (2) Send Office Feedback (a.k.a. Send a Smile) reagarding positive/negative experiences when using Office along with a desktop screenshot. *(disabled)* - no data sent
    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\Feedback]
    "enabled"=dword:00000000
    "includescreenshot"=dword:00000000

    (3) Logging - Outlook troubleshoot logging. *(disabled)* - no data collected
    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Options\Mail]
    "EnableLogging"=dword:00000000

    (4) Configure the level of client software diagnostic data collected by Office and sent to Microsoft. *(Required)*
    Choices are Required (1), Optional (2), or Neither (3).
    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\ClientTelemetry]
    "DisableTelemetry"=dword:00000001

    (5) Enable Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) *(disabled)* - opt out of CEIP
    Enable Microsoft Office Diagnostics to automatically receive small updates for improved reliability. *(enabled)* - turn on Office Diagnostics
    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common]
    "qmenable"=dword:00000000
    "updatereliabilitydata"=dword:00000001

    (6) Disable Opt-in Wizard on first run and Show OneDrive Sign-In when performing a File Save operation. *(disabled)* - Show Opt-In Wizard/Hide OneDrive SignIn
    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\General]
    "shownfirstrunoptin"=dword:00000000
    "skydrivesigninoption"=dword:00000000

    (7) Proofing Tools feature collects data about Proofing Tools usage and sends to Microsoft. *(disabled)* - no usage data sent
    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\ptwatson]
    "ptwoptin"=dword:00000000

    (8) Disable First Run Movie and First Run on Application Boot when Office first runs. *(enabled)* - First Run not shown
    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Firstrun]
    "disablemovie"=dword:00000001
    "bootedrtm"=dword:00000001

    (9) Allow the use of connected experiences in Office that download online content. Examples: Office templates and PowerPoint QuickStarter.
    Allow the use of connected experiences in Office that analyze content. Examples: PowerPoint Designer and Editor in Word.
    Allow the use of additional optional connected experiences in Office. Examples: LinkedIn features of the Resume Assistant in Word or the 3D Maps feature in Excel, which uses Bing.
    Allow the use of connected experiences in Office. (Seems to be combination of previous three settings).

    *(all enabled)*

    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\Privacy]
    "downloadcontentdisabled"=dword:00000001
    "usercontentdisabled"=dword:00000001
    "controllerconnectedservicesenabled"=dword:00000001
    "disconnectedstate"=dword:00000001

    (10) Turn on telemetry data collection and uploading features in Office that are used by Office Telemetry Dashboard and Office Telemetry Log. *(disabled)* - no telemetry data uploaded
    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\OSM]
    "Enablelogging"=dword:00000000
    "EnableUpload"=dword:00000000

    (11) Office applications to exclude from Office Telemetry Agent reporting. *(enabled) - no telemetry data uploaded
    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\OSM\preventedapplications]
    "accesssolution"=dword:00000001
    "olksolution"=dword:00000001
    "onenotesolution"=dword:00000001
    "pptsolution"=dword:00000001
    "projectsolution"=dword:00000001
    "publishersolution"=dword:00000001
    "visiosolution"=dword:00000001
    "wdsolution"=dword:00000001
    "xlsolution"=dword:00000001

    (12) Office solutions to exclude from Office Telemetry Agent reporting. *(enabled)* - no telemetry data uploaded
    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\OSM\preventedsolutiontypes]
    "agave"=dword:00000001
    "appaddins"=dword:00000001
    "comaddins"=dword:00000001
    "documentfiles"=dword:00000001
    "templatefiles"=dword:00000001
    Last edited by Brink; 10 Dec 2022 at 23:54. Reason: removed dead links
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  9. Brink
    Posts : 68,881
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
       New #7

    @bamajon1974,

    I'm afraid I never played with these settings, so I really can't say what would be best, and what may break anything.
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  10. bamajon1974
    Posts : 521
    Win7 Pro X64, Win10 Pro x640
    Thread Starter
       New #8

    I am hoping someone else that is more familiar with these settings can weigh in. I also posted this question to Office Subreddits. Other than Microsoft, any ideas of other places to ask this question?

    Brink said:
    @bamajon1974,

    I'm afraid I never played with these settings, so I really can't say what would be best, and what may break anything.
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  12. bamajon1974
    Posts : 521
    Win7 Pro X64, Win10 Pro x640
    Thread Starter
       New #9

    After more reading I learned a few things....

    Tweaks 1, 2 and 3 can be turned on and off through local group policy if the latest administrative templates from Microsoft are locally installed.

    Reg entry #1 from above is the most important of the privacy tweak in my opinion. I don't want to send personal information to Microsoft. In Office 2016, you could disable sending personal information to Microsoft by unchecking the option in File - Options - Trust Center - Trust Center Settings - Personal information at the top of the window. This option is now missing in Microsoft 365. Where did it move to?

    Tweak 2 (smiley face) works from Local Group Policy. Tweak 3 (outlook logging) is unchecked by default in Outlook settings.

    The Telemetry and Customer Improvement settings can be modified from Office 365 privacy window so no need to mess with group policy or registry editor.

    The Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) seems to be left over from older versions of office and largely irrelevant now since there isn't much up to date info about this program.

    The Telemetry Dashboard seems to be more geared toward organization deployment and not so relevant to individual users.

    Comments/Opinions?

    Thanks!
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