Use preferences to manage privacy controls for Office for Mac

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Note

For a list of Office products covered by this privacy information, see Privacy controls available for Office products.

Starting with Version 16.28 of Office for Mac, there are new preference settings that allow you to control settings related to the following:

  • Diagnostic data that is collected and sent to Microsoft about Office client software being used.

  • Connected experiences that use cloud-based functionality to provide enhanced Office features to you and your users.

In addition, there's a new preference setting related to a Required Data Notice dialog for Microsoft AutoUpdate (MAU).

For more information about diagnostic data and connected experiences, see Overview of privacy controls.

Note

Setting preferences

These new preference settings are CFPreferences API compatible and can be set using the defaults command in Terminal, or enforced through a Configuration Profile or Mobile Device Management (MDM) server. When the preferences are enforced, the user can't change the values, and any in-app controls will appear disabled.

Note

You can also use Cloud Policy and these 5 policy settings:

  • Configure the level of client software diagnostic data sent by Office to Microsoft
  • Allow the use of connected experiences in Office that analyze content
  • Allow the use of connected experiences in Office that download online content
  • Allow the use of additional optional connected experiences in Office
  • Allow the use of connected experiences in Office

For more information on using Cloud Policy, see Overview of Cloud Policy service for Microsoft 365.

Preference setting for diagnostic data

Diagnostic data is used to keep Office secure and up-to-date, detect, diagnose and remediate problems, and also make product improvements. For more information, see Diagnostic data sent from Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise to Microsoft.

Category Details
Preference Domain com.microsoft.office
Key DiagnosticDataTypePreference
Data Type String
Possible values BasicDiagnosticData (this value sets the level to Required)
FullDiagnosticData (this value sets the level to Optional)
ZeroDiagnosticData (this value sets the level to Neither)
Availability 16.28 and later

If you don't set this preference, both required and optional diagnostic data are sent to Microsoft if users with an Office 365 (or Microsoft 365) subscription are signed in with a work or school account, or if users have Office LTSC Standard for Mac 2021 or Office Standard 2019 for Mac. Also, these users can't change the level of diagnostic data regardless of how you set this preference.

For other users, such as home users with an Office 365 (or Microsoft 365) subscription, only required diagnostic data is sent, unless the user chooses to also send optional diagnostic data by going to Preferences > Privacy.

Preference setting for connected experiences that analyze your content

Connected experiences that analyze your content are experiences that use your Office content to provide you with design recommendations, editing suggestions, data insights, and similar features. For example, PowerPoint Designer or Researcher in Word. For a list of these connected experiences, see Connected experiences in Office.

Category Details
Preference Domain com.microsoft.office
Key OfficeExperiencesAnalyzingContentPreference
Data Type Boolean
Possible values TRUE (enabled)
FALSE (disabled)
Availability 16.28 and later

If you don't set this preference, connected experiences that analyze content are available to users.

Note

If you set this preference to FALSE, Copilot for Microsoft 365 features won’t be available to your users in certain apps. For more information, see Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 and policy settings for connected experiences.

If the user has an Office 365 (or Microsoft 365) subscription and is signed in with a work or school account, or if the user has Office LTSC Standard for Mac 2021 or Office Standard 2019 for Mac, then the user can't turn off connected experiences that analyze content.

For other users, such as home users with an Office 365 (or Microsoft 365) subscription, the user can choose to turn off connected experiences that analyze content by going to Preferences > Privacy.

Preference setting for connected experiences that download online content

Connected experiences that download online content are experiences that allow you to search and download online content including templates, images, 3D models, videos, and reference materials to enhance your documents. For example, Office templates or PowerPoint QuickStarter. For a list of these connected experiences, see Connected experiences in Office.

Category Details
Preference Domain com.microsoft.office
Key OfficeExperiencesDownloadingContentPreference
Data Type Boolean
Possible values TRUE (enabled)
FALSE (disabled)
Availability 16.28 and later

If you don't set this preference, connected experiences that download online content are available to users.

If the user has an Office 365 (or Microsoft 365) subscription and is signed in with a work or school account, or if the user has Office LTSC Standard for Mac 2021 or Office Standard 2019 for Mac, then the user can't turn off connected experiences that download online content.

For other users, such as home users with an Office 365 (or Microsoft 365) subscription, a user can choose to turn off connected experiences that download online content by going to Preferences > Privacy.

Preference setting for optional connected experiences

In addition to the connected experiences mentioned above, there are some optional connected experiences that you may choose to allow your users to access with their organization account, which is sometimes referred to as a work or school account. For example, similarity checker (a feature of Editor), which relies on Bing. For more examples, see Overview of optional connected experiences in Office.

Category Details
Preference Domain com.microsoft.office
Key OptionalConnectedExperiencesPreference
Data Type Boolean
Possible values TRUE (enabled)
FALSE (disabled)
Availability 16.28 and later

If you don't set this preference, optional connected experiences are available to users with an Office 365 (or Microsoft 365) subscription that are signed in with a work or school account, or to users who have Office LTSC Standard for Mac 2021 or Office Standard 2019 for Mac. Unless you have set this preference to FALSE, these users can choose to turn off optional connected experiences by going to Preferences > Privacy.

For other users, such as home users with an Office 365 (or Microsoft 365) subscription, there isn't an option to turn off optional connected experiences.

Preference setting for most connected experiences

You can use this preference to control whether most connected experiences are available to your users.

Category Details
Preference Domain com.microsoft.office
Key ConnectedOfficeExperiencesPreference
Data Type Boolean
Possible values TRUE (enabled)
FALSE (disabled)
Availability 16.28 and later

If you don't set this preference, all connected experiences are available to your users, unless you have set one of the other preferences for connected experiences previously mentioned, such as OfficeExperiencesAnalyzingContentPreference.

For example, if you set this preference to FALSE, the following types of connected experiences won't be available to your users:

  • Experiences that analyze your content
  • Experiences that download online content
  • Optional connected experiences

In addition, if you set this preference to FALSE, most other connected experiences are also turned off, such as coauthoring and online file storage. For a list of these other connected experiences, see Connected experiences in Office.

But even if you set this preference to FALSE, limited Office functionality will remain available, such as synching a mailbox in Outlook, and Teams and Skype for Business will continue to work. Essential services, such as the licensing service that confirms that you’re properly licensed to use Office, will also remain available.

If the user has an Office 365 (or Microsoft 365) subscription and is signed in with a work or school account, or if the user has Office LTSC Standard for Mac 2021 or Office Standard 2019 for Mac, then the user can't turn off most connected experiences.

For other users, such as home users with an Office 365 (or Microsoft 365) subscription, a user can choose to turn off most connected experiences by going to Preferences > Privacy.

Preference setting for the Required Data Notice dialog for Microsoft AutoUpdate

The first time Version 4.12 or later of Microsoft AutoUpdate (MAU) is launched, users will see a Required Data Notice dialog, which provides them with information about what data from MAU is sent to Microsoft.

If you don't want your users to see this Required Data Notice dialog for Microsoft AutoUpdate, you can set the following preference. Regardless of which value you set, the dialog won't be shown to your users.

Category Details
Preference Domain com.microsoft.autoupdate2
Key AcknowledgedDataCollectionPolicy
Data Type String
Possible values RequiredDataOnly
RequiredAndOptionalData
Availability 4.12 and later

If you let your users see this dialog, then when the user chooses OK, the value RequiredDataOnly is written to AcknowledgedDataCollectionPolicy and the dialog isn't shown to the user again.