Random people showing up in Track Changes??

Anonymous
2023-02-05T00:30:48+00:00

I am doing revisions on a novel and random people are now showing up in the track changes. I have not shared this document with anyone, but it is stored in my OneDrive. How did these people's names get in my document? They are coming up as reviewers and their names are attached to changes I've made.

This is incredibly concerning and a HUGE privacy violation. Has anyone else seen this??

For what it is worth, I've googled these people and I have NO connection to them at all. But one thing I did notice is that LinkedIn profiles appear for all of them near the top of the Google results. One of them is the CMO of Whole Foods?? I, personally, do not have a LinkedIn profile nor have I ever.

Microsoft Word for Mac v16.69.1

macOS 13.2

EDIT: I updated the screenshot to remove content of document.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | Other | MacOS

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-02-05T02:12:41+00:00

    Hello Brian,

    Did you write it or are you editing a file someone else wrote? If you are editing someone else's work, it would be expected - and its possible the reviewers have the same name as the more famous people you found.

    Are you using a template from the internet?

    -- Diane

    Give back to the Community. Help the next person who has this issue by indicating if this reply solved your problem. Click Yes or No below.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-02-05T02:21:56+00:00

    Hi Diane, no, this is a document I wrote and I own. It has only lived in my OneDrive. I've not shared it with anyone. When I go back in the version history, this happened on February 2nd. In all previous versions of the document, these people do not appear.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-02-05T02:44:04+00:00

    Ok... then that is definitely weird. I'll check with my contacts in support and see what they think could have happened.

    Also - use Help > contact support to contact word support about it.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-02-05T03:00:39+00:00

    Thank you, Diane. I would appreciate that. This is really concerning and I'd like to have some understanding of how this could have happened.

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-02-06T03:21:11+00:00

    I want to know how it happened too. :) It will probably be later tomorrow before I hear back.

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