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How secure and private is Dictate (not transcribe) in Word?

Anonymous
2021-12-17T23:01:31+00:00

The pivacy footnote for Word’s Dictate function says:

This service does not store your audio data or transcribed text.

Your speech utterances will be sent to Microsoft and used only to provide you with text results.

I cannot find any additional information about how the service works, how secure it is, how data is transmitted, processed, or stored (for the period of time Microsoft has it, even if it’s not subsequently stored), or anything else that would allow me to make a judgment about whether to use it or not.

A version of this question has been asked previously, but the answer provided was about the Transcribe feature, which doesn’t appear to be the same thing, even though I’m sure they’re related:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/how-secure-is-the-dictation-function-within/3ffa0e5f-c00c-4344-b873-2c111422dad6

I have a personal O365 account and would be using the feature in Word for iOS and Word for Mac.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | iOS

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-12-19T12:01:15+00:00

    MS connects using HTTPS encrypted connections to send your information to their servers.

    .

    How paranoid do you want to get. Can you trust what MS posts as its policy?

    The question is while right now they say they don't save or share your information, how much do you trust them to keep those promises. At any point the could decide that they can make more money selling your information to other companies.

    .

    That link you provided links to MS docs pages that describe MS's official policy on how they transfer and handle data

    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-ca/deployoffice/privacy/connected-experiences#connected-experiences-that-analyze-your-content 

    This page does not include Transcribe. Send feedback to them asking to add it to the list.

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-12-19T04:32:09+00:00

    Hi Boston-Ave,

    Thanks for raising your concern in Microsoft Community.

    It sounds like you'd like to know how secure and private is Dictate in Word. For privacy issues or concerns like this, it is kindly advised to contact our privacy team for more professional support.

    Feel free to post back if you need further assistance, and have a good Christmas!

    Best Regards,

    Lynn Sun | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

    * Beware of scammers posting fake support numbers here.

    * Kindly Mark and Vote this reply if it helps, as it will be beneficial to more community members reading here.

    1 person found this answer helpful.
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  3. Anonymous
    2021-12-21T06:09:50+00:00

    Hi Boston-Ave,

    You can contact the Microsoft privacy team or the Microsoft Data Protection Officer directly by filling out this form | Microsoft-Report a Privacy Concern if you have further clarification on the privacy issue of dictate feature in Word.

    Do get back to us for any issues pertaining in the future. We will be happy to help.

    Best Regards,

    Lynn Sun | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

    * Beware of scammers posting fake support numbers here.

    * Kindly Mark and Vote this reply if it helps, as it will be beneficial to more community members reading here.

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