Microsoft insists Office update doesn’t spy on users

Microsoft insists Office update doesn’t spy on users  

(ஆஃபீஸ் அப்டேட் பயனர்களை உளவு பார்க்காது என்று மைக்ரோசாப்ட் வலியுறுத்துகிறது)

Microsoft has denied that it is spying on users by releasing an update (pictured right) that tells the company which version of Office they’ve got installed. The company released update KB5021751 on 17 January to help it “identify the number of users running out-of-support (or soon to be out-of-support) versions of Office” – in particular versions 2007, 2010 and 2013. Microsoft ended support for the first two in October 2017 and October 2020 respectively, 10 years after they were released. Office 2013 will follow this lifespan trend, with Microsoft ending support on 11 April. Microsoft also said that the update “will run one time silently without installing anything on the user’s device”. However, many users enquired via social media and help forums why Microsoft needed to know which version of Office users had.

WHAT WE THINK

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Once again Microsoft shoots itself in both feet through its kneecaps. The update gathers relatively harmless data, but being forced to clarify this makes Microsoft look like it’s got something to hide. Knowing who uses old versions of Office will help it target them with ‘update now’ alerts, but will these tactics drive them towards free alternatives such as the new version of LibreOffice (see page 18)? And how many will now turn off messages related to Office anyway?

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In response Microsoft added more information to the update announcement, attempting to justify it by saying that unsupported versions of Office “no longer receive security updates that provide the latest protections against known vulnerabilities” and that they “might face performance and reliability issues over time”. It also clarified how the update works, saying it collected “diagnostic and performance data to estimate the usage of installed Office versions” so it can analyse how best to “support and service” them. It added that the data is “gathered from registry entries and APIs”, which are tools that let two software components communicate with each other, and doesn’t include “licensingdetails, customer content, or data about non-Microsoft products”. The update is optional, meaning it will be shown to users who have turned on the ‘Receive updates for other Microsoft products when you update Windows’ option in Settings. You can check this by opening Settings (press Windows key+I), then clicking ‘Update & Security’ on the left (Windows 10) or ‘Windows Update’ (Windows 11). Now click the ‘Advanced options’ link and check 

whether the ‘Receive updates…’ slider is on or off (pictured below). Turn it off from blue to grey  if you don’t want to receive any further updates relating to Office and other non-Windows Microsoft products.