[Tip] Tweak Microsoft Office 2013 Settings to Improve Your Privacy

Most of us are using the new Office 2013 version in our Windows PCs, its fast and it comes with many security and performance improvements.

Recently while customizing Office 2013 settings, I noticed a few things which I would like to share with you all. There are a few options in Office 2013 settings which come enabled by default. These options allow Office to download or send some data and statistics regularly to Microsoft so that Microsoft can help you better in diagnose and troubleshooting Office 2013 problems.

If you worry about your privacy, you can turn those options off to improve your privacy.

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Simply follow these simple steps to improve your privacy settings in Office 2013 suite:

1. Open any Office 2013 program such as Word and click on File menu present in the ribbon.

2. Now click on Options tab given in left sidebar.

3. It’ll open options window. Now click on “Trust Center” tab and then click on “Trust Center Settings” button as shown in following screenshot:

Microsoft_Office_Trust_Center_Settings.png

4. It’ll open a new window. Click on “Privacy Options” tab and here you’ll see a few options enabled by default:

Microsoft_Office_Privacy_Settings.png

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5. You can disable following options to improve privacy:

  • Download a file periodically that helps determine system problems
  • Sign up for the Customer Experience Improvement Program
  • Allow the Research task pane to check for and install new services
  • Allow sending files to improve file validation

6. Apply changes and now you should have better privacy settings in Office 2013. I have not faced any problem after disabling these options. If you face any issue, you can enable these options anytime.

The above tutorial should also apply to previous Office versions such as Office 2010 and 2007, not checked…

Also check:

Published in: Microsoft Office

About the author: Vishal Gupta (also known as VG) has been awarded with Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. He holds Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He has written several tech articles for popular newspapers and magazines and has also appeared in tech shows on various TV channels.

Comments

NOTE: Older comments have been removed to reduce database overhead.

  1. Checked. Applications of Microsoft Office 2010 have these privacy settings as well.

    I believe Office 2007 have these too.

    I think Microsoft should ask user to set these configurations while doing the installation. Somehow the default setup are allowing most action. 🙁

  2. Thank you so much VG. I did not know about these settings. I learn new things daily at askvg. 🙂

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