This summary applies to Microsoft 365 and Office products such as Access, Excel, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Word that are designed to help our customers achieve more. For the full list of the products covered by this privacy information, see Privacy controls available for Office products.

Microsoft is dedicated to being more transparent with our customers and giving them more control over their data. As part of this work, we moved our major products and services to a model where personal data we collect from customers as they use their devices are classified as either Required or Optional. This makes it easier for our customers to find information about the data we collect and how we use it, and to make informed choices about their privacy.

This article provides an overview of the types of data that are Required and Optional, the specific categories of personal data that are collected by the applications, and how our customers can change their privacy settings to customize the data they share with Microsoft.

Data in the Required category is necessary to keep our products up to date, secure, and working as expected. Required data includes things like the type and version of a customer’s device so we can provide connectivity to our cloud services and security patches to keep our experiences safe and secure, and diagnostic data that helps us detect significant feature failures.

In some cases, a customer can control whether Required data is collected by deciding whether to use the product features or functions that depend on that data. For example, if an enterprise customer uses Word with document storage and collaboration in the cloud, we collect the data required to keep their employees’ documents secure and synchronized across their devices.

As you use services with Microsoft 365 apps, such as inserting an image into a PowerPoint slide or updating to the latest version of Excel, data is sent to and processed by Microsoft to provide you with that functionality. This data, which we refer to as required service data, is necessary for Microsoft to deliver this functionality, helping ensure that it’s secure, up to date, and performing as expected.

Connected experiences, Microsoft 365 Copilot, and essential services all generate required service data when you interact with Microsoft 365 apps.

Required service data isn’t a specific data type, such as Customer Data or Personal Data (which are defined in the Microsoft Products and Services Data Protection Addendum (DPA)). Instead, it’s a general description for all data required to be processed when interacting with a service through Microsoft 365 apps. It consists of the following distinct elements: service calls, content, and service-related diagnostic data.

For more information, including example scenarios of the data collected and sent to Microsoft, see Required service data for Microsoft 365 products.

For connected experiences and Microsoft 365 Copilot, you can use our existing privacy controls and settings to prevent required service data from being collected and sent to Microsoft.

For essential services, required service data is always collected and sent to Microsoft. You can’t turn off these essential services because they’re key to how Microsoft 365 apps function.

Data in the Optional category isn’t essential or strictly necessary to keep the client software secure, up to date or performing as expected. Optional data includes things like which pictures people select to use from our image library in Word so we can provide better image options, and information about the time it takes for a PowerPoint slide to appear so we can improve our software performance.

Because Optional data isn’t necessary to provide the applications, customers can decide whether to allow us to collect this type of data. Home users can make this decision during the initial setup of the applications or, after setup, by using the privacy settings available in the applications. In work or school environments, there are tools available to administrators to make this decision for their organization.

Although sharing Optional data isn’t required, this data helps us develop new and better experiences for our customers. We’d like our customers to share this data with us, but the applications will keep working as expected no matter what they decide. This is our customers’ data and we’re committed to respecting the decisions they make about their privacy.

Microsoft provides the Diagnostic Data Viewer to enable you to see what diagnostic data is being collected while you use the applications, for both required and optional diagnostic data.

The privacy settings available to customers depend on whether the customer is signed in with a Microsoft account (for example, a personal outlook.com email address) or with a work or school account. Learn more about the various settings for controlling your personal data:

• Access your Account Privacy Settings
• Microsoft privacy dashboard

In organizations, administrators control whether required or optional diagnostic data is sent to Microsoft. They can also control which connected experiences are available to their users. Learn more about the various options available to administrators to manage privacy settings in their organizations:

• Overview of privacy controls for Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise
• Use policy settings to manage privacy controls for Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise
• Use preferences to manage privacy controls for Office for Mac
• Use preferences to manage privacy controls for Office on iOS devices
• Use policy settings to manage privacy controls for Office on Android devices
• Use policy settings to manage privacy controls for Office for the web applications

Most settings are available regardless of whether the applications are being used on Windows, Mac, Android, or iOS devices.

Learn more about how we generally collect and use data:

• Microsoft Privacy Statement
• Privacy at Microsoft