Conversation

Notices

1. Embed this notice
   :umu: :umu: (a1ba@suya.place)'s status on Saturday, 23-Nov-2024 23:41:21 JST :umu: :umu:

   in reply to

   • Miguel Afonso Caetano
   @remixtures 7 submenus and it has some misleading checkbox title?
   
   Why are you still using Microsoft products
   • Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Miguel Afonso Caetano (remixtures@tldr.nettime.org)'s status on Saturday, 23-Nov-2024 23:41:23 JST Miguel Afonso Caetano

     "Microsoft Office, like many companies in recent months, has slyly turned on an “opt-out” feature that scrapes your Word and Excel documents to train its internal AI systems. This setting is turned on by default, and you have to manually uncheck a box in order to opt out.

     If you are a writer who uses MS Word to write any proprietary content (blog posts, novels, or any work you intend to protect with copyright and/or sell), you’re going to want to turn this feature off immediately.

     I won’t beat around the bush. Microsoft Office doesn’t make it easy to opt out of this new AI privacy agreement, as the feature is hidden through a series of popup menus in your settings:

     On a Windows computer, follow these steps to turn off “Connected Experiences”: File > Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > Privacy Options > Privacy Settings > Optional Connected Experiences > Uncheck box: “Turn on optional connected experiences”"

     https://medium.com/illumination/ms-word-is-using-you-to-train-ai-86d6a4d87021

     #Microsoft #AI #GenerativeAI #AITraining #MSWord #Privacy #Word

     Kari'boka and mangeurdenuage :gnu: :trisquel: :gondola_head: 🌿 :abeshinzo: :ignucius: like this.
     Rich Felker repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     antares (antares@shitposter.world)'s status on Sunday, 24-Nov-2024 03:53:09 JST antares

     in reply to

     • Miguel Afonso Caetano
     @a1ba @remixtures What could possibly stop Microsoft Office users from using Microsoft Office at this point?
     Sick Sun likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     翠星石 (suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com)'s status on Sunday, 24-Nov-2024 13:54:08 JST 翠星石

     in reply to

     • Miguel Afonso Caetano
     @remixtures >write any proprietary content
     Proprietary works do not leave me content.
     
     >any work you intend to protect with copyright
     Copyright restrictions are automatic for any creative work - you cannot choose whether your works are copyrighted or not.
     
     If you don't want a work to be restricted by copyright, it must be validly released to the public domain.
     
     
     Such opt-out option will only operate for a short while before the option will reset.
     
     The only way to actually opt-out is to stop using microsofts proprietary malware and install GNU/Linux.
   • Embed this notice
     翠星石 (suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com)'s status on Sunday, 24-Nov-2024 14:00:30 JST 翠星石

     in reply to

     • Miguel Afonso Caetano
     • That Would Be Telling
     @ThatWouldBeTelling @a1ba @remixtures >A take as of a decade ago
     OpenOffice from a decade ago is massively different to Libreoffice today.
     
     >MS Word doesn't crash when you're trying to edit big documents?
     microsoft word does indeed crash and crash often, while I can't remember the last time libreoffice crashed.
     
     >its collaboration features are much better
     It's collaboration "features" aren't really usable and imagine not using git to collaborate on a document.
     
     >A lot of us use computers to get shit done, not to make political statements.
     If that's really the case, you wouldn't be using microsoft's shitware.
     
     It's a shame you're too spineless to make the political statement of not running proprietary malware and using software that actually works.
   • Embed this notice
     That Would Be Telling (thatwouldbetelling@shitposter.world)'s status on Sunday, 24-Nov-2024 14:00:31 JST That Would Be Telling

     in reply to

     • Miguel Afonso Caetano

     @a1ba @remixtures A take as of a decade ago trying to use LibreOffice/maybe it was OpenOffice on trailing the bleeding edge Debian (NOTE: FIXED after memory jogged by you as I did to you it would seem):

     Because MS Word doesn't suddenly fail to write documents it then can't read? Because its collaboration features are much better? (That's based on an even older version of MS Word; I grant both problems might have gotten better, but the first problem was/is a dangerous trap when you're writing something big and you then have to go into recovery mode including "What did I do to make it fail???).)

     A lot of us use computers to get shit down, not to make political statements.

     Unfortunately that means a lot of us have or in times past have had to use Windows and Office to work with other people. That said, I'm happy I now can satisfy all my requirements using Linux (ugh) and LibreOffice.

     This trick of uploading your Office data for Ai training, completely compromising customer security requirements, though, should cause a reaction like I gather happened with Adobe doing this. But I'd assume a bigger one given how many more people use Office.

   • Embed this notice
     翠星石 (suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com)'s status on Sunday, 24-Nov-2024 14:06:41 JST 翠星石

     in reply to

     • Miguel Afonso Caetano
     • That Would Be Telling
     @a1ba @ThatWouldBeTelling @remixtures >but it completely obliterated my files a few times
     Sounds like an old bug that has been fixed as that has never happened to me.
     
     microsoft office has done that to me years ago.
     
     >I was scared to use it again.
     Was it really that hard to apply the trivial workaround of saving backups as you edited?
     
     >LO can actually open documents in the same state they were saved in.
     Yes, although microsoft intentionally has designed their undocumented format to render differently in different versions of word.
     
     
     Even if it is 100 times harder to use free software instead of proprietary malware, I always go for the former, as why would GNU's weakest soldier stumble?
   • Embed this notice
     :umu: :umu: (a1ba@suya.place)'s status on Sunday, 24-Nov-2024 14:06:43 JST :umu: :umu:

     in reply to

     • Miguel Afonso Caetano
     • That Would Be Telling
     @ThatWouldBeTelling @remixtures same, and you reminded me that I'm not really honest here because last time I did something big in a text processor it was Word 2007 in a Wine. Still not something MS can randomly update and make worse, right? Besides, MS didn't added anything useful since 2007.
     
     Why not LO? It didn't crashed on me but it completely obliterated my files a few times after saving them and I was scared to use it again. Other than that, editing a file once and then exporting it as PDF always worked fine. But that's for something simple.
     
     I'm still checking that LO can actually open documents in the same state they were saved in.
   • Embed this notice
     翠星石 (suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com)'s status on Sunday, 24-Nov-2024 14:08:36 JST 翠星石

     in reply to

     • Miguel Afonso Caetano
     • That Would Be Telling
     @ThatWouldBeTelling @a1ba @remixtures >Thus why I called it a trap, and is entirely unforgivable.
     Some bad bugs in the past (now fixed) and no forgiveness anymore, but you always forgive microsoft, no matter what they do, no matter their failings?
   • Embed this notice
     That Would Be Telling (thatwouldbetelling@shitposter.world)'s status on Sunday, 24-Nov-2024 14:08:37 JST That Would Be Telling

     in reply to

     • Miguel Afonso Caetano

     @a1ba @remixtures Oops! My and my friend's problem in editing with Open/LibreOffice a manual that was getting bigger and bigger as they are wont to do was exactly what you experienced.

     It would save successfully but then you couldn't open that file. Thus why I called it a trap, and is entirely unforgivable. Now I only use it for simple one or two page letters and never save out raw text I want to pretty print out on paper.

     Not sure which was the last version of MS Office I used, but it was on XP.....

   • Embed this notice
     Valentijn Sessink (valentyn@mastodon.nl)'s status on Sunday, 24-Nov-2024 19:22:11 JST Valentijn Sessink

     in reply to

     • Miguel Afonso Caetano

     @remixtures What, exactly, isn't clear to people about "to improve Microsoft products and services, you grant to Microsoft a worldwide and royalty-free intellectual property license to use Your Content".
     https://www.microsoft.com/en/servicesagreement/

     It's there. It's always been there. And no, you can't "turn it off".

     "If you are a writer"? NO ONE should be using software with such an awkward clause in its license.

     Like a landlord that comes to snoop in your stuff "to improve our housing facilities". Come on.