-->
Starting with Version 16.28 of Office for Mac, there are new preference settings that allow you to control settings related to the following:
Outlook for Office 365 for Mac Office for business Office 365 Small Business Outlook 2016 for Mac Office 2016 for Mac Outlook for Mac 2011 Outlook 2019 for Mac More. Less You can give a delegate access to your Microsoft Exchange calendar, contacts, and email, and you can set permissions that define the activities that delegates can carry out. All diagnostic data Microsoft collects during the use of Office applications and services is pseudonymized, as defined in ISO/IEC, section 8.3.3. Required diagnostic data For example, if an Office application crashes, certain details about the crash, that help us to diagnose and fix the problem, are collected. Tech support scams are an industry-wide issue where scammers trick you into paying for unnecessary technical support services. You can help protect yourself from scammers by verifying that the contact is a Microsoft Agent or Microsoft Employee and that the phone number is an official Microsoft global customer service number. Create your best work with Office 365, and get 1 TB of OneDrive cloud storage for your photos and files. The Office experience you know and love, built for your Mac, PC, iOS and Android devices. Jul 29, 2016 We’ll deliver this first for Office for Windows, followed by Office for Mac and Office Mobile for iOS. Single sign-on and multiple accounts in Office 2016 for Mac —We are making changes to support single sign-on in Office 2016 for Mac, which means you won’t need to sign in again to view an RMS-protected document if you’re already signed in. Aug 20, 2015 Excel 2016 for Mac has a brand new Microsoft Query (MSQuery) and Connection Manager to make creating and managing all of your data connections easier and more consistent with Windows. Let’s take a deep dive into how each of these improvements can help you. Native support for ODBC data connections.
- 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 is 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
- For information about similar settings for Office on computers running Windows, see Use policy settings to manage privacy controls for Office 365 ProPlus.
- For information about similar settings for Office on iOS devices, see Use preferences to manage privacy controls for Office on iOS devices.
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 cannot change the values, and any in-app controls will appear disabled.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 Office 365 ProPlus to Microsoft.
Preference Domain | com.microsoft.office |
Key | DiagnosticDataTypePreference |
Data Type | String |
Possible values | BasicDiagnosticData (this sets the level to Required)FullDiagnosticData (this sets the level to Optional)ZeroDiagnosticData (this sets the level to Neither) |
Availability | 16.28 and later |
Starting with new installations of Version 16.30, if you don't set this preference, only required diagnostic data is sent to Microsoft if users with an Office 365 subscription are signed in with a work or school account or if users have a volume licensed version of Office 2019 for Mac. Also, these users can't change the level of diagnostic data regardless of how you set this preference.
Note
- If you install Version 16.28 or 16.29 and you don't set this preference, both optional and required diagnostic data is sent to Microsoft. If you then upgrade to Version 16.30 or later, both optional and required diagnostic data is still sent to Microsoft, unless you use this preference to set a different value.
- If you set this preference, it also will apply to Version 1.00.217856 and later of Teams for Mac and to Version 16.28 and later of Skype for Business for Mac.
For other users, such as home users with an Office 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.
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.
If the user has an Office 365 subscription and is signed in with a work or school account or if the user has a volume licensed version of Office 2019 for Mac, then the user can't turn off connected experiences that analyze content.
I've been using Windows 10 for almost two years, and I love it. Darren Weaver/Business Insider. (give or take) with Windows 10 — well, if it's Mac versus PC, I'm definitely a PC kind of guy. Microsoft 10 vs mac os for business. 10 reasons to get an Apple Mac instead of a Windows PC. Macs are easier to buy. There are fewer models and configurations of Mac computers to choose from than there are Windows PCs — if only. Mac computers are easier to get repaired. Apple macOS can be simpler to use, but that.
For other users, such as home users with an Office 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.
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 subscription and is signed in with a work or school account or if the user has a volume licensed version of Office 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 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, the LinkedIn features of the Resume Assistant in Word or the Weather Bar in Outlook, which uses MSN Weather. For more examples, see Overview of optional connected experiences in Office.
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 subscription that are signed in with a work or school account or users who have a volume licensed version of Office 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 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.
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 co-authoring 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 subscription and is signed in with a work or school account or if the user has a volume licensed version of Office 2019 for Mac, then the user can't turn off most connected experiences.
For other users, such as home users with an Office 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.
Microsoft User Data Office 2016 Mac Preview
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 is not shown to the user again.