Is copilot scraping my word documents?

Question

Hi!

Recently I've come across multiple videos stating that the Windows Copilot is now scraping the content written in our word documents, which I would assume it's utsing to train itself. Now I wonder - is this even true?

I use word for both my school and writing for fun on the side. I don't want the stories I've written, nor any future ideas I might have, to get scraped up and stolen by the AI.

I've tried everything to try and locate copilot on my device to try to disable it - but to no awail. I cannot seem to find anything, and now I'm questioning if it's even installed on my laptop?

So, how does the copilot ai work - and does it scrape your word documents of content and ideas? If yes, is it possible to disable it, and how would I do that? And if it isn't, what could all these rumors online be all about - that copilot is "stealing our content"?

Answer 1

Hi!

Recently I've come across multiple videos stating that the Windows Copilot is now scraping the content written in our word documents, which I would assume it's utsing to train itself. Now I wonder - is this even true?

I use word for both my school and writing for fun on the side. I don't want the stories I've written, nor any future ideas I might have, to get scraped up and stolen by the AI.

I've tried everything to try and locate copilot on my device to try to disable it - but to no awail. I cannot seem to find anything, and now I'm questioning if it's even installed on my laptop?

So, how does the copilot ai work - and does it scrape your word documents of content and ideas? If yes, is it possible to disable it, and how would I do that? And if it isn't, what could all these rumors online be all about - that copilot is "stealing our content"?

Scraping? Almost certainly.

Stealing? Depends on your definition, I suppose.

From this issue of Woody's Watch:

Taming Copilot

One of the main concerns regarding Windows 11 is its push of artificial intelligence (AI) in the form of Copilot. But rest assured that this can be controlled and tamed. For resources on how to do this, you can review the following:

• 9000001 Blocking Copilot in Windows 10 and 11 Home SKU
• 9000002 Blocking Copilot in Windows 10 and 11 Professional SKU
• 9000003 Blocking Copilot in Microsoft 365 (easy one — don’t buy the extra license)
• 9000004 Blocking Copilot in Edge — right side only
• 9000005 Blocking Copilot in Edge Start page
• 9000006 Removing Copilot in Edge on iPhone/iPad
• 9000007 Removing Copilot from Search

Answer 2

See also:

• https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/copilot/b59a3a77-e1aa-4c78-a019-91675fa13979?LastReply=true#LastReply
• https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/copilot/3991d762-f13d-4901-8ce5-4ff7763fb708?LastReply=true#LastReply