I'm a little surprised they risked this. Someone is likely using Office in healthcare with personal information in those documents. That would mean Microsoft is violating HIPAA.
It is a somewhat untested grey area. I'm not a lawyer but I do follow these things closely.
With regards to HIPAA, most of the requirements largely bind on the clients using Word, requiring them and not Microsoft, to take action to be in compliance, and to have signed agreements with any third-party processing being done that protects HIPAA related PII.
If they are unaware of the software change they would be the ones responsible for the violations, albeit it becomes a very complex case of third-party liability or tortuous interference.
As for Microsoft, they can just claim they had no knowledge of whether the documents submitted would contain such or not and they would be correct in that statement, despite a clear conflict of interest to their benefit, and in how they went about enabling said feature without authorization.
As far as I can see It would be an uphill fight to determine culpability or negligence, and these legal fights often must overcome the presumption of goodwill which many corporations take advantage of, instead pretending to be incompetent when the outcome in question was a purposeful decision.
1: If you put it on a computer, the company behind the computer is reading it. This is what Recall is for. Just imagine a Microsoft Minder, North-Korea style, hovering over your shoulder for all your online activity.
2: If you click the opt-out button, it's most likely "the company pretends it doesn't have your data, and you pretend to believe them". It's long been an (admittedly unsubstantiated) belief of mine that getting the privacy settings to be what YOU want them to be is a placebo the company offers you, any blowback they get will be one decade away and a pittance of a fine, so there's no disincentive.
3: People will eventually start sharing less and the hoovers will starve themselves, then re-train on old data plus AI outputs and poison themselves. That's not this quarter's problem, so it's not a problem.
Unfortunately, these dynamics lead to other chilling effects that inevitably burden society to the point where it may fail or collapse, but its not this quarter's problem.
These are subtle problems too. For example the simple communication or sharing an opinion from an intelligent person to someone less gifted brings the overall discussion to a higher level of thought and awareness, the less gifted person learns and pulls the next person up when its right. The lack of such subtle dynamics would pull everyone down into the mud and force them to act no better than animals, violently, as it was absent civilized societal underpinnings.
Cascading problems like dam collapses have a time lag, where the difference in time is critical to avoiding the worst possible case.
The current generation in power is doing their utmost to blindly destroy the environmental requirements needed for society, in search of more short-term profit. Very destructive.
I wouldn't put a hard date on it, you'd be wrong more often than right.
It is comparable to predicting stock market crashes, you know the snowpack for an avalanche is built up but you never know what specific stimulus will trigger it.
Complex systems can occasionally survive much longer than one would normally think just by pure chance. I do think it is relatively safe to say that the point of no return will be reached/decided in the next 5 years.
Interactions with monetary and fiscal policy consequences/dynamics will likely force a collapse to non-market socialism. At that time the remaining legitimate producers leave the market (concentration trend dynamics), and the remaining market participants will cooperate which causes the market as a whole to fail in its functions.
I kiillllled Microsloth 10 years ago. Just one too many idiotic horrors. Linux now. It's easy, works well, and does not wreck your laptop or sneak like this.
One more time. F*@% Mocrosoft, destroyer of productivity and privacy
Please write soon about the dumbing down of browsers with generative language models. I think we all understand entropy. It doesn't just play out in the physical world. It also plays out in any dynamic structure.
Can't believe anyone wouldn't want a "connected experience" like this! I love how it says "Your privacy matters" in a page with an opt-in to prevent it from being violated. I wish I could say this surprised me, but the worst part is, it's exactly what I expect from Microsoft.
It's no wonder that although it's still a relatively small part of the market share, the number of Linux desktop users just keeps growing, especially as even some of the more specialist software becomes compatible with it over time. Hopefully it continues; competition is needed.
I'm a little surprised they risked this. Someone is likely using Office in healthcare with personal information in those documents. That would mean Microsoft is violating HIPAA.
It is a somewhat untested grey area. I'm not a lawyer but I do follow these things closely.
With regards to HIPAA, most of the requirements largely bind on the clients using Word, requiring them and not Microsoft, to take action to be in compliance, and to have signed agreements with any third-party processing being done that protects HIPAA related PII.
If they are unaware of the software change they would be the ones responsible for the violations, albeit it becomes a very complex case of third-party liability or tortuous interference.
As for Microsoft, they can just claim they had no knowledge of whether the documents submitted would contain such or not and they would be correct in that statement, despite a clear conflict of interest to their benefit, and in how they went about enabling said feature without authorization.
As far as I can see It would be an uphill fight to determine culpability or negligence, and these legal fights often must overcome the presumption of goodwill which many corporations take advantage of, instead pretending to be incompetent when the outcome in question was a purposeful decision.
That’s what windows 11 was built for
1: If you put it on a computer, the company behind the computer is reading it. This is what Recall is for. Just imagine a Microsoft Minder, North-Korea style, hovering over your shoulder for all your online activity.
2: If you click the opt-out button, it's most likely "the company pretends it doesn't have your data, and you pretend to believe them". It's long been an (admittedly unsubstantiated) belief of mine that getting the privacy settings to be what YOU want them to be is a placebo the company offers you, any blowback they get will be one decade away and a pittance of a fine, so there's no disincentive.
3: People will eventually start sharing less and the hoovers will starve themselves, then re-train on old data plus AI outputs and poison themselves. That's not this quarter's problem, so it's not a problem.
Unfortunately, these dynamics lead to other chilling effects that inevitably burden society to the point where it may fail or collapse, but its not this quarter's problem.
These are subtle problems too. For example the simple communication or sharing an opinion from an intelligent person to someone less gifted brings the overall discussion to a higher level of thought and awareness, the less gifted person learns and pulls the next person up when its right. The lack of such subtle dynamics would pull everyone down into the mud and force them to act no better than animals, violently, as it was absent civilized societal underpinnings.
Cascading problems like dam collapses have a time lag, where the difference in time is critical to avoiding the worst possible case.
The current generation in power is doing their utmost to blindly destroy the environmental requirements needed for society, in search of more short-term profit. Very destructive.
Collapse by 2050.
I wouldn't put a hard date on it, you'd be wrong more often than right.
It is comparable to predicting stock market crashes, you know the snowpack for an avalanche is built up but you never know what specific stimulus will trigger it.
Complex systems can occasionally survive much longer than one would normally think just by pure chance. I do think it is relatively safe to say that the point of no return will be reached/decided in the next 5 years.
Interactions with monetary and fiscal policy consequences/dynamics will likely force a collapse to non-market socialism. At that time the remaining legitimate producers leave the market (concentration trend dynamics), and the remaining market participants will cooperate which causes the market as a whole to fail in its functions.
I kiillllled Microsloth 10 years ago. Just one too many idiotic horrors. Linux now. It's easy, works well, and does not wreck your laptop or sneak like this.
One more time. F*@% Mocrosoft, destroyer of productivity and privacy
Calling these things "optional connected experiences" is clearly obfuscatory.
Thank you. I am in healthcare and didn't know this. I only recently started using Word. Ick!
This is true even on Macs! I just unchecked it on my Outlook by going to “Outlook” -> “Settings” -> “Privacy”
In PowerPoint they call it “Preferences” instead of “Settings” 🤦🏽♂️
Thanks for the info.
Please write soon about the dumbing down of browsers with generative language models. I think we all understand entropy. It doesn't just play out in the physical world. It also plays out in any dynamic structure.
i actually warned about this in an earlier substack on enshittification. I said it should be Google’s biggest fear.
oh goodness that's awful
Individuals don't stand a chance against big tech. Only governments can rein them in.
alas, governments (esp US) probably won’t do squat unless citizens organize. see my book for some of why.
Thanks, Gary, for keeping us up on all of this! It is infuriating!
We are being extracted just like any other mining operation. I will not be told otherwise.
Can't believe anyone wouldn't want a "connected experience" like this! I love how it says "Your privacy matters" in a page with an opt-in to prevent it from being violated. I wish I could say this surprised me, but the worst part is, it's exactly what I expect from Microsoft.
It's no wonder that although it's still a relatively small part of the market share, the number of Linux desktop users just keeps growing, especially as even some of the more specialist software becomes compatible with it over time. Hopefully it continues; competition is needed.
Welcome to the Age of Technofeudalism.
https://www.wired.com/story/yanis-varoufakis-technofeudalism-interview/
What would stop bad actors from generating tons of docs with “alternative facts” to induce bias or worse?
So, human employees sign NDA’s, get sued, and handle client confidential correspondence and documents also covered by contracts. And this is OK?