Collection and use of your information

The information that we collect from you will be used by Microsoft and its controlled subsidiaries and affiliates to enable the features that you are using and provide the service(s) or carry out the transaction(s) you have requested or authorized. It may also be used to analyze and improve Microsoft products and services. We might also use the information to request additional information on feedback that you provide about the product or service that you are using; to provide important notifications regarding the software; to provide you with advance notice of events; or to tell you about new product releases.

Some personal information that you enter may be included in Office 2011 documents in the form of metadata. This metadata is used by Office 2011 programs to help you collaborate with others on your documents. For example, if you choose to create a link to an image, file, data source, or other document on your hard disk or on a server, the path to that file is saved in your document. In some cases, the link may include your user name or information about servers on your network. In the case of a data connection, you can choose to save a user name or password within the data connection link. Also, when you apply an XML Schema to a document, a path to the XML Schema that you have created is saved to the document. In some cases, that path may include your user name. Information such as your user name may also be shared with users on your network when conflicts occur—for example, when you have locked a shared file for editing and another user tries to open it.

When you uninstall Office 2011, some associated information will not be removed as part of uninstalling Office 2011, because it may be used by another program. For example, documents that you have created by using Office 2011 will not be deleted from your computer. Similarly, information stored in certificate keychains and in your Office Identity will remain on your computer after you uninstall Office 2011.

Except as described in this statement, personal information that you provide will not be transferred to third parties without your consent. We occasionally hire other companies to provide limited services on our behalf, such as packaging, sending and delivering purchases and other mailings, answering customer questions about products or services, processing event registration, or performing statistical analysis of our services. We will only provide those companies the personal information that they need to deliver the service, and they are prohibited from using that information for any other purpose.

Microsoft may access and/or disclose personal information if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on Microsoft; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of Microsoft; or (c) act in urgent circumstances to protect the personal safety of Microsoft employees, users of Microsoft products or services, or members of the public.

Information that is collected by or sent to Microsoft may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which Microsoft or its affiliates, subsidiaries, or agents maintain facilities, and by using this program, you consent to any such transfer of information outside of your country. Microsoft abides by the safe harbor framework as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of data from the European Union, the European Economic Area, and Switzerland.

Collection and use of information about your computer

When you use software with Internet-enabled features, information about your computer ("standard computer information") is sent to the Web sites that you visit and online services that you use. Microsoft uses standard computer information to provide you Internet-enabled services, to help improve our products and services, and for statistical analysis. Standard computer information typically includes information such as your IP address, operating system version, browser version, and regional and language settings. In some cases, standard computer information may also include hardware ID, which indicates the device manufacturer, device name, and version. If a particular feature or service sends information to Microsoft, standard computer information will be sent as well.

The privacy details for each Office 2011 feature, software, or service listed in this privacy statement describe what additional information is collected and how it is used.

Security of your information

Microsoft is committed to helping protect the security of your information. We use a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect your information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. For example, we store the information that you provide on computer systems with limited access, which are located in controlled facilities.

Changes to this privacy statement

We will occasionally update this privacy statement to reflect changes in our products and services and customer feedback. When we post changes, we will revise the "last updated" date at the top of this statement. If there are material changes to this statement or in how Microsoft will use your personal information, we will notify you either by prominently posting a notice of such changes prior to implementing the change or by directly sending you a notification. We encourage you to periodically review this statement to be informed of how Microsoft is protecting your information.

For more information

Microsoft welcomes your comments regarding this privacy statement. If you have questions about this statement or believe that we have not adhered to it, please contact us by using our (Web form) Contact Us: Privacy feedback.

You may also contact us by postal mail at:

Microsoft Privacy
Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, Washington 98052 USA

Specific features

The remainder of this document will address specific features in applications such as the following:

• Microsoft Excel for Mac 2011 ("Excel")

• Microsoft Word for Mac 2011 ("Word")

• Microsoft PowerPoint for Mac 2011 ("PowerPoint")

• Microsoft Outlook for Mac 2011 ("Outlook")

Broadcast Slide Show

What This Feature Does:     This feature enables users to share their PowerPoint presentation with users who may view the slide show live in their Web browser.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted:     When you broadcast a slide show, Microsoft PowerPoint for Mac 2011 sends a copy of your full presentation to the server that you choose, along with information about the account that you use to connect to the server. PowerPoint 2011 provides you a URL through which other users can view the slide show. Although the broadcast feature only shows the slide show you present, it is possible for anyone with access to the URL to access your full presentation content, including hidden slides. When you broadcast a slide show, PowerPoint 2011 stores the server that you use, including information such as its name, its URLs or other addresses, and its description. This information is used to let you access the servers that you have used more easily in the future.

Coauthoring

What This Feature Does:     Coauthoring allows multiple authors to work on the same document at the same time.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted:     This feature collects your name, password, e-mail address, and machine name. This information is stored in the Office Document Cache and the Mac OS Keychain. To prevent unauthorized access to personal information, metadata stored in the application is encrypted and therefore cannot be accessed by others.

Use of Information:     This information is used to identify which parts of a document or presentation other authors are editing. In PowerPoint, this information identifies which slides are being edited, and in Word, this information identifies which paragraphs are being edited. The information is reflected back to coauthoring participants through presence controls on the status bar, the thumbnail pane in PowerPoint, and on section locks in Word. Each user is aware of all the participants who are working on the file and which sections, paragraphs, and slides these users are editing in the file. This helps users communicate, collaborate, and avoid conflicts with each other.

Choice/Control:     The data collected during a coauthoring session is only committed to the Mac OS Keychain if you select the Save password in my Mac OS KeyChain check box. Your credentials are encrypted when they are stored in Mac OS Keychain. In cases where there are pending uploads, the credentials are encrypted and stored in the Office Document Cache, and then cleared after you have successfully uploaded the files.

Coauthoring is enabled through Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and Windows Live OneDrive. Enterprises can enable or disable coauthoring on their SharePoint servers, or restrict access to OneDrive via their proxy servers.

Comments

What This Feature Does:     This feature allows you to add commentary to a document.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted:     By default, if you save comments to a file, Excel, Word, and PowerPoint mark each comment with your name. This information is then available to anyone who has access to your file.

Choice/Control:     You can remove your name from comments in Excel and Word by doing the following:

1. On the Word or Excel menu, click Preferences, and then click Security.

2. Under Privacy options, select the Remove personal information from this file on save check box.

3. Save the document.

   Note: This setting will not remove personal information from a shared Excel workbook.

To remove comments in PowerPoint, on the Review tab, under Comments, click Delete, and then select Delete comment, Delete all comments on a slide, or Delete all comments in a presentation. Save the presentation.

Important Information:      Documents can contain hidden comments. Prior to sharing a document, you should delete any comments, visible or hidden, that you do not want to share. In some cases, documents received from other programs may contain comments that are visible only in those programs, and cannot be displayed or changed by Office 2011.

Customer Experience Improvement Program

What This Feature Does:     The Customer Experience Improvement Program ("CEIP") collects basic information about your hardware configuration and how you use our software and services, to identify trends and usage patterns. CEIP also collects the type and number of errors you encounter, software and hardware performance, and the speed of services. We will not collect your name, address, or other contact information.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted:     For more information about the information that is collected, processed, or transmitted by CEIP, see the Privacy Statement for the Microsoft Customer Experience Improvement Program.

Use of Information:     We use this information to improve the quality, reliability, and performance of Microsoft software and services.

Choice/Control:     CEIP is turned off by default. You are offered the opportunity to participate in CEIP during setup. You can view or change your settings at any time by navigating to the Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Outlook menu, clicking Preferences, and then clicking Feedback.

Digital certificates

What This Feature Does:    Office 2011 uses digital certificates. These digital certificates confirm the identity of Internet users who are sending X.509 standard encrypted information. Digital certificates also can be used to digitally sign e-mail messages to verify the integrity and origin of the e-mail contents.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted:     The software retrieves certificates and updates certificate revocation lists by using the Internet, when available.

Choice/Control:     You can choose not to digitally sign e-mail with digital certificates. In some cases you can choose whether to check certification revocation lists manually, and you can choose not to do so. You can also organize and manage digital certificates by using the Microsoft Keychains and default Keychain, which are a part of the Keychain functionality in the Mac operating system.

Document properties

What This Feature Does:     By default, every file saved by Word, PowerPoint, and Excel may include file properties such as Author, Manager, Company, Last Saved By, and Names of document reviewers. Metadata may be added when files are saved to SharePoint document libraries.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted:     This information is available to anyone who has access to your file.

Use of Information:     This information is used by Office 2011 programs to track document properties and help you collaborate with others on your documents.

Choice/Control:     You can remove your name from most properties manually by navigating to the File menu and then clicking Properties. In Word and Excel, you can also remove these properties by doing the following:

1. On the Word or Excel menu, click Preferences, and then click Security.

2. Under Privacy options, select the Remove personal information from this file on save check box.

3. Save the document.

   Note: This setting will not remove personal information from a shared Excel workbook.

In PowerPoint, you can remove document properties by doing the following:

1. On the File menu, click Properties, and then click the Summary tab.

2. Clear the fields that you do not want to share.

3. Save the document.

To remove your name from PowerPoint documents, do the following:

1. On the PowerPoint menu, click Preferences, and then click Advanced.

2. Under User information, clear the Name field.

3. Save the document.

Excel charts

What This Feature Does:     This feature allows you to create charts and graphs from information in your Excel workbooks.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted:     When you create a chart in Excel, you can filter the selected data for the chart so that only a portion of the data is displayed. All the selected data, however, is stored with the chart.

Choice/Control:     To prevent other people from altering the data that is used to create your chart, when you copy the chart into a Microsoft application, paste it as a picture. For example, in PowerPoint, on the Edit menu, click Paste Special, and then under Paste As:, click Picture. You can also passwordprotect a document to help prevent others from changing the data that is used to create the chart.

File format support

What This Feature Does:    Office 2011 uses file formats that are based on XML. These XML file formats are extensible, meaning that users can specify additional schemas or tags in the files. Other third-party code can also attach additional metadata information to these XML file formats that may not be viewable in the Office 2011 applications.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted:     Your files may contain user-defined schemas and tags, or other metadata, visible or hidden, that you do not want to share.

Choice/Control:     You can verify the metadata that has been associated with an XML file by viewing it in a text viewer.

Information Rights Management (IRM)

What This Feature Does:     IRM enables you to encrypt content against a Rights Management Services (RMS) server. Only users with access to an RMS server can use this feature, and the feature is only available in the Volume License SKU.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted:     IRM encrypts and stores the following information: user name and password information for network servers, e-mail addresses, permission information associated with those e-mail addresses, and computer information (such as hard drive serial numbers).

Use of Information:     The encrypted information is used to enforce restrictions on content that you want to protect by using IRM.

Choice/Control:     When a user opens a protected document, an alert is displayed indicating that the user must connect to the RMS server to verify his or her credentials. This dialog box includes an optional check box that the user can select to store his or her user name and password in the Mac OS Keychain utility. Users can delete stored identities from the Mac OS Keychain. RMS server administrators can turn off support for the Office for Mac IRM clients.

Important Information:     All personal information is encrypted and stored in the Mac OS Keychain, licenses, or within the IRM-protected document.

Microsoft AutoUpdate for Mac

What This Feature Does:    Microsoft AutoUpdate for Mac ("AutoUpdate") collects basic information from your computer regarding installed Microsoft applications to identify which updates are available and to improve the updating service.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted:     For details about what information is collected and how it is used, see the Microsoft AutoUpdate for Mac Privacy Statement.

Microsoft Error Reporting

What This Feature Does:    Microsoft Error Reporting provides a service that allows you to report problems that you may be having with Office 2011 to Microsoft and to receive information that may help you avoid or solve such problems.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted:    Microsoft Error Reporting collects Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, which are not used to identify users. It does not intentionally collect information such as name, address, e-mail address, computer name, or any information that could be used to identify you or contact you. It is possible that such information may be captured in memory or in the data collected from open files, but Microsoft does not use it to identify or contact you.

In rare cases, such as problems that are especially difficult to solve, Microsoft may request additional data, including one or more files from your computer. Your current documents may also be included. For more details on what information is collected and how it is used, see the Privacy Statement for the Microsoft Error Reporting Service.

Use of Information:    Microsoft uses the error reporting data to help solve customer problems and improve our software and services.

Choice/Control:     When you encounter a problem with your software and an error report is created, Microsoft Error Reporting will ask you whether you would like to send it to Microsoft. When Microsoft needs additional data to analyze the problem, you will be prompted to review the data and choose whether to send it or not. If you choose not to send error reports to Microsoft, the reports will not be sent. For more information about the Microsoft Error Reporting tool, including a full privacy statement, see the Privacy Statement for the Microsoft Error Reporting Service .

Microsoft Document Connection for Mac

What This Feature Does:     With Microsoft Document Connection for Mac, you can access documents on Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services and Windows Live OneDrive sites, and perform actions such as downloading, editing, and uploading documents to these sites. You can add SharePoint and Windows Live OneDrive sites, and documents on those sites, to a Favorites list. You are asked for your user name and password to access these sites and you can store these user names and passwords in your Mac OS Keychain.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted     If you choose to store your user name and password in your Mac OS Keychain, the information is saved to your computer in the Mac OS default keychain as a password item with a name that is the same as the site URL.

Use of Information:     This information is only used to access the associated SharePoint or Windows Live OneDrive site.

Choice/Control:     When you access a SharePoint or Windows Live OneDrive site, you can choose to save your user name and password in your Mac OS Keychain. For information about removing the password item from the default keychain, see Mac Help.

Microsoft Office for Mac Upload Center

What This Feature Does:    Upload Center allows you to see the status of files that you're uploading to a Web server, which means that you can save changes and continue working even when you are offline or can't connect to the network. Upload Center helps you track how uploads are progressing and whether any files need your attention.

Applications in Microsoft Office for Mac 2011, such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, automatically create a local copy of remote documents. This local copy lets you access a copy of the file when you aren't online and helps improve performance when you are online.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted:     In addition to the document content, Office 2011 might store some metadata about your documents on your computer in the Office Document Cache, such as names, server login IDs, and e-mail addresses of people who are or were editing the document with you.

Use of Information:     When you upload a file to a server, it is first saved on your computer to the Office Document Cache, a client-side cache for documents that are stored on Web servers. Documents are seamlessly replicated from this local cache, and uploaded to servers as required, enabling faster and more robust file access.

Choice/Control:     You can clear the Office Document Cache of files that have been uploaded at any time.

1. In the Mac OS X Finder, open /Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Office/Microsoft Upload Center.

2. On the Upload Center menu, click Preferences.

3. Under Office Document Cache, click Delete Files.

Important Information:     Files that are waiting to be uploaded and files that contain upload errors are not deleted when you clear the cache. These files can be deleted by clicking Discard on the toolbar.

Office Identity

What This Feature Does:     During setup, you will be asked to enter some personal information such as name, company, home phone number, and e-mail address.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted:     This information is stored on your machine, and is not sent to Microsoft.

Use of Information:     Your Office 2011 Identity will be added to your Outlook Address Book and used as the default entries for properties such as Author and Last Saved By in your Office 2011 documents. This information will also be used to identify your changes and comments when you use Comments and Track Changes in Office 2011 documents.

Choice/Control:     You can choose the personal information that you provide during setup, but the name that you provide must be at least two characters long.

Important Information:     If you have previously installed a version of Office 2011, you can transfer your identity from a previous version, which will copy it to your new copy of Office 2011. The transferred identity will continue to be available in the older version of Office 2011, and you may edit the identities independently.

Outlook automatic account configuration

What This Feature Does:    Outlook provides you with an option to automatically configure your mailbox with some e-mail providers to send and receive e-mail messages to and from their server(s).

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted:     To automatically configure your Exchange account, you must provide your e-mail address in the Account Setup Assistant dialog box. Your user name and password will be requested and sent over the Internet to the server. Outlook will first attempt to use a secure (SSL) connection to configure your Exchange account but will send this information unencrypted if your e-mail provider does not support SSL. For some e-mail providers, automatic account configuration is not supported, and you will be asked to manually configure your e-mail settings. ISP mail accounts are configured by using a local mapping file instead of personal information.

Use of Information:     The information sent is used to configure your Exchange e-mail account. If you use a third-party e-mail provider, Microsoft does not control the use of your information by that third party.

Choice/Control:     To use Outlook to send and receive e-mail, you must configure an account. If you do not want to use the automatic account configuration, you can choose to configure the e-mail server settings manually by clearing the Configure Automatically check box in the Accounts dialog box.

Outlook Logging

What This Feature Does:     Logging is a diagnostic tool primarily used by support professionals to help troubleshoot Outlook issues. When enabled, Outlook logging creates a data file and saves it in text format on your desktop. The data file can be provided to support professionals and then be used to diagnose and solve problems that have occurred.

Information Collected, Processed, and Transmitted:     After logging has been enabled, the log files that are created by Outlook contain information that can be used to troubleshoot problems that have occurred in Outlook, such as:

• Issues when sending or receiving e-mail messages, calendar items, notes, tasks, and meeting requests

• Type or severity of errors, if known

Data files may contain information that identifies you, could be used to contact you, or may be considered sensitive or confidential. We do not use this information to contact you without your consent. For example, when logging is enabled, the data file collects all data that Outlook synchronizes with the Exchange server, including your name, IP address, sender and receiver's e-mail addresses, and the contents of your e-mail messages, notes, tasks, calendar, and contacts. Microsoft does not use this information to contact you without your consent.

Use of Information:     The information that you provide in the data file is for diagnosing and developing solutions to problems in the software and to improve the software in general.

Choice/Control:    Outlook logging is turned off by default. To learn how to turn on logging, please review the instructions in Outlook Help. You may review the contents of your data files. If you are concerned that your data files contain sensitive or confidential information, you may remove the information from the data files prior to sending the data file to support professionals. Microsoft receives only the data files that you choose to send.

Outlook Search

What This Feature Does:    Outlook Search provides you with the ability to quickly search through items in your mailbox.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted:     By default, the search function uses the Mac operating system Spotlight technology. Outlook creates a cache that includes a subset of your Outlook data, such as e-mail, folders, and address book contacts. Spotlight indexes this cache file for searching.

Use of Information:     The information collected by Outlook Search is used to provide you with the ability to more quickly find items in your mailbox.

Choice/Control:     You can choose not to use Outlook Search. If you do not use Outlook Search, your Outlook information will not be indexed by Spotlight.

Important Information:     If you use Outlook Search and later delete an e-mail or other Outlook information, it will later be removed from the Spotlight index file after a delay that is determined by the Mac operating system. You will be able to find information about your deleted Outlook information in Outlook Search results until the information is removed from the Spotlight index file. In addition, if you uninstall Outlook or delete your Outlook database, the corresponding cache file will not be removed from your computer.

Outlook sharing capabilities

What This Feature Does:     As a personal information manager, Outlook stores your e-mail, your events, your contacts and address book entries, your tasks, notes, and projects.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted:     By default, Outlook information is saved to your personal computer and is accessible only by you. However, you have the option to share this information with other people in any of the following ways:

• You can send an e-mail message or a meeting request.

• You can send a contact. If you send a contact to someone, all of the information that you have stored in that contact is shared with the other person.

• You can choose to share information in any of the Exchange folders (mail, tasks, notes, calendar, and contacts) with other people.

• You can send an encrypted e-mail message with a digital signature. If you digitally sign a message, that signature will be stored with the message. The digital signature contains a digital certificate, which can include an e-mail address. If you are using Microsoft Exchange Server, you can also publish public keys to that Exchange server.

PowerPoint media

What This Feature Does:    PowerPoint 2011 allows movies and audio to be embedded within PowerPoint files.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted:     Any personal information that exists in the metadata of the media is accessible in the PowerPoint file.

Choice/Control:     You can choose to link instead of embed the media. Alternatively, you can open the original media file and remove any personal information from the file before embedding it into a PowerPoint file.

Product Activation

What This Feature Does:     Activation helps reduce software counterfeiting, which helps ensure that Microsoft customers receive the software quality they expect. Activation means that a specific product key becomes associated with the hardware it is installed on. The Microsoft Software License Terms for Office 2011 state the number of times that your product key can be used for activation. Once you have used the product key for the specified number of times on the same or different computers, that product key can no longer be used for activation on other computers. Activation is mandatory for the Trial version of Office 2011 and for released versions of Office 2011.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted:     To activate the Trial version of Office 2011, you must supply an e-mail address. After the grace period of the Trial version of Office 2011 expires, you must activate the software to be able to continue using it.

During activation of Office 2011, product key information is sent to Microsoft. Product activation collects the following information: Your product key, hardware identification, and whether you converted from a trial version to a released version of the product.

Activation also sends to Microsoft a number generated from the computer's hardware configuration. This number does not represent any personal information or information about the software. It cannot be used to determine the make or model of the computer and it cannot be calculated to determine any additional information about your computer. Along with standard computer information, some additional language settings are collected.

If you license Office on a subscription basis or if you buy Office from Office.com, you're asked during the initial activation to submit the user ID associated with your subscription—your Microsoft account or another user ID you use to access Microsoft Office 365—over the Internet. Microsoft then sends a product key over the Internet to your computer to complete the activation. After the initial activation, Office sends activation information to Microsoft automatically from time to time to verify whether your use of Office is properly licensed, as specified by your Office license agreement.

Your copy of Office 2011 can detect and accept changes to your machine configuration. Minor upgrades do not require re-activation. If you uninstall Office 2011, you might be required to activate your product again. Some changes to your computer components or the software might require you to reactivate the software.

If you are activating while upgrading from the Trial version of Office 2011, activation also collects information from your computer about the trial version from which you are upgrading.

If you are unable to complete activation, you might receive a message with a link to a Web site where you can learn more about why activation failed. If you choose to follow that link, information about why you failed activation may be sent to Microsoft. This information might include information normally sent during activation.

If you do not activate or reactivate your copy of Office 2011, you might not be able to use it. When you launch the application, you will see a dialog box that asks you to activate your product.

None of the information collected through activation or reactivation is used to personally identify you. In certain cases, such as where activation is done by using a volume license key, none of the information related to activation is sent to Microsoft.

Reference Tools

What This Feature Does:     Reference Tools allows you to request information about a particular term or phrase from a number of content providers, including third parties.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted:     When you request information about a word or phrase, Reference Tools will send your request to the content provider over the Internet. The provider will return information about the word or phrase that you requested. Reference Tools includes a Translation option. If you choose to perform a "Whole Document Translation," the text of your document will be sent to a third-party or Microsoft translation service. Reference Tools sends information, including documents to be translated, in an unencrypted format. As with any information that is sent unencrypted over the Internet, it might be possible for other people to see the document.

Use of Information:     The information sent is used by the content provider to return the information that you have requested. Microsoft does not control the privacy policies or practices of third-party content providers.

Choice/Control:     Reference Tools is offline by default. To send information over the Internet you must first choose to enable online reference searches. After Online Reference Tools has been enabled, you can disable the online access by doing the following:

1. On the Reference Tools window, click the symbol in the upper-right corner.

2. In the Toolbox Settings window, clear the Allow online access check box.

Important Information:     Frequently, the information that you receive will include a link to additional information from the third-party provider's Web site. If you click this link, the provider may add a cookie to your system to identify you for future transactions. Microsoft is not responsible for the privacy practices of third-party Web sites. Microsoft does not receive or store any of this information unless you have queried a Microsoftowned service.

Track Changes

What This Feature Does:     This feature helps multiple users to collaborate on a document by tracking changes that are made by each user in a different color. Tracked deletions are not removed from the final document until they are accepted.

Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted:     By default, when you make changes to a file in Office 2011 with the Track Changes feature turned on, your user name is stored in the document and associated with the changes that you make. This information, including both the original and revised text, is then available to anyone who has access to your file.

Choice/Control:     After tracked changes have been accepted or rejected, your name is removed from the changes. You can also remove your personal information from these changes in Word and Excel by doing the following:

1. On the Word or Excel menu, click Preferences, and then click Security.

2. Under Privacy options, select the Remove personal information from this file on save check box.

3. Save the document.

   Note: This setting will not remove personal information from a shared Excel workbook.

Important Information:     In Excel, removing personal information removes tracked changes and the name associated to each comment. Comments are not removed. In Word, removing personal information removes the name that is associated with tracked changes and comments. The tracked changes and comments are not removed.