Word 365: outside server image analysis - Connected Experiences

[NitroPress]

Has anyone else noticed that Word 365 appears to be passing all inserted images to an outside server (something Bing-based, I as/u/me) to generate AI-based alt text?


This is not documented anywhere I can locate, and in the vast, confusing Options menus, there are just vague references to cloud services that can be disabled as a group.


I avoid everything after Office 2016 on many grounds, but (as now, when I noticed this behavior) contract clients often have it installed as the enterprise solution.




I find it disturbing that potentially sensitive, proprietary or even 'secret' images are being shot out of the local system and network, with no notice or user control; nothing I've found and no one I've asked seems aware of this behavior, and I'd bet 99% of users think their image is remaining local to their system. This is not the same as (theoretically) private cloud storage or user exchange; a third-party server is looking specifically at the content of a user file.


I'm only dealing with some industrial equipment of modest "secrecy"; a colleague at a major NGO was so disturbed he hung up on me to call their cybersecurity bureau.


Thoughts/comments?