A tweet claiming that Microsoft Office uses the content of customer documents to train its AI systems raised a lot of eyebrows, but the tech giant says that it’s a simple misunderstanding.A Linux account with hundreds of thousands of followers tweeted the claim … NixCraft tweeted: The tweet included a screengrab of instructions which referenced it as a “new AI privacy agreement.” However, the official Microsoft 365 account responded, stating that the claim is false.9to5Mac’s Take Given some of the unethical behavior we’ve seen when it comes to training AI models, it’s not surprising that these claims arise, and get attention when they do.
In this case, Microsoft’s unequivocal statement makes it clear it’s based on a misunderstanding.Tech giants do in part bring this on themselves, however, through extremely lengthy and opaque privacy policies which can make it hard to understand what they are and aren’t doing.Adobe ran into a similar problem earlier this year, not helped by an initially dismissive comment which failed to properly clarify the position.
It was subsequently forced to make a much clearer statement.Tech companies would be doing a service to themselves as well as their users if they revamped their privacy policies to be as succinct and transparent as possible. You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day.
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