Microsoft Office - Forced Data Collection

As of the latest version of MS Office apps, Microsoft now gives users no choice but to automatically send usage data to them. The only choice you have is between "Basic diagnostic data" and "Advanced diagnostic data" (reworded in the latest build to simply "diagnostic data" and "enhanced error reporting," respectively). I find this totally bizarre and have never been denied a choice to not share ANY data automatically (whether claimed to be sent anonymously or not) by any major software before as far as I can remember. If I'm experiencing problems with their software, I will always submit feedback and send an error report, but that ought to be something I initiate, not something automatically mined in the background.

I have submitted multiple feedback reports to Microsoft and also started this thread on the Microsoft Community site which you can read for more details. If anyone figures out a Terminal command to disable this setting, let me know, though I have a feeling it might not be so simple.

Interesting thread, thanks for the link. It appears MS is acting the way they always have. At least now their data collection schemes are visible to us users. I wonder how much data collection they have done in the past without notifying us of it?

If anyone figures out a Terminal command to disable this setting, let me know, though I have a feeling it might not be so simple.

Click to expand...

I don't know if it would work for this situation, but the Little Snitch.app sure comes to mind:
https://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html
https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/10426/little-snitch

PS: And no, you don't need to have it drive you crazy with hundreds of alert notices, it's all in the settings.



- Patrick
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pm-r said:

I don't know if it would work for this situation, but the Little Snitch.app sure comes to mind:
https://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html
https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/10426/little-snitch

PS: And no, you don't need to have it drive you crazy with hundreds of alert notices, it's all in the settings.



- Patrick
======

Click to expand...

Thanks. That might be worth a shot.