Trust and privacy are central to Microsoft’s mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. When it comes to our products, we’re committed to providing you with the information and controls you need to make choices about how your data is collected and used. We understand that you have certain expectations of Office and that those include that it will be secure, reliable, capable, and that your data and privacy will be respected.
The tabs below have information about each of the different versions of Microsoft Office.
Important: If you're using version 1904, or newer, of Microsoft Office then your privacy options have moved. For information about accessing them, please see Account Privacy Settings.
To view the privacy options in a Microsoft 365, Office 2021, Office 2019, or Office 2016 app on Windows follow these easy steps:
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Click File > Options.
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Click Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > Privacy Options.
Privacy Options
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Send personal information to Microsoft to make improvements to Office.
When you check this box, you are helping to improve the quality, reliability, and performance of Microsoft. Microsoft automatically collects information from your computer, including error messages and hardware and software information. Any information that is sent to Microsoft is anonymous. This information isn’t used in advertising or sales in any way.
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Let Office connect to Microsoft's online services to provide functionality that’s relevant to your location and preferences.
When you check this box, you allow Microsoft to collect information about your use of the online services and sites provided by Microsoft and its partners. This setting enables use of the translation options available in the Research & Reference sections.
Document-specific settings
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Remove personal information from file properties on Save
This option automatically removes personal information from the file properties when you save the file. It's turned off in Excel, PowerPoint, and Word and turned on for Publisher and SharePoint Designer. Even if the option to remove personal information automatically is off, you can still remove personal information on demand by running the Document Inspector; either from the button right here in the Trust Center or by going to File > Info > Check for Issues > Inspect Document.
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For the programs with the option turned on, the option is available only if you are working with a document created in an earlier version of Office, and you used this option in that version to remove personal information.
Research and Reference
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Translate Options
Use Translate Options to choose settings for online bilingual dictionaries and machine translation. The options in this dialog box are available only if you check the Let Office connect to Microsoft's online services to provide functionality that’s relevant to your location and preferences box under Privacy Options.
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Research Options
Use Research Options to activate multilingual reference book and research site services.
To access your privacy settings in Microsoft 365 or Office 2016 for Mac go to the application menu (for example Word or PowerPoint) > Preferences and select Privacy from the bottom row of options.
The Microsoft Privacy Statement
To read our privacy statement visit Microsoft Privacy Statement
We're listening
This article was updated by Ben on June 5th, 2019 as a result of your comments. If you found the information helpful, and especially if you didn't, please use the feedback controls below to let us know how we can make it better.
