A data processing impact assessment report commissioned by the
Dutch government found that Microsoft breached the European
privacy rules. According to the report, Microsoft collects and
stores personal data regarding the behaviour of its users without
any public documentation.
The report found that Microsoft collects data on a large scale
regarding the individuals' use of its Office software Word,
Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. Said collection is carried
out without providing any prior information, or offering any choice
to opt-out, as well as the ability to see what data has been
collected. Microsoft also records and stores
individuals' use of connected services, such as translation
services through the Office software. The report found that
Microsoft collects up to 25,000 types of Office events, data that
is made available to up to 30 engineering teams. In
addition, according to the report, the telemetry data collection
system sends the data of Dutch users to
