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. Jim G 134.1K Reputation points MVP
    2023-02-10T16:10:56+00:00

    Judging by the high number of view of this question, it is affecting a lot of people.

    If this is hurting your work flow, you can restore the previous month's build of Microsoft Word using Time Machine. Simply restore the Microsoft Word.app in the Applications folder using the previous month's build.

    Learn how to use Time Machine to restore specific files

    You might use the Menu Bar and choose Help > Check for Updates and set AutoUpdate to Manual until this is resolved in a future update of Microsoft Word.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-02-10T17:01:55+00:00

    I'm working with someone on the Word team on this. In the meantime, I've reverted to an earlier version of the document and removed it from OneDrive to work on it locally.

    Thanks for everyone's help and suggestions.

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    2 people found this answer helpful.
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  3. Jim G 134.1K Reputation points MVP
    2023-02-12T17:17:59+00:00

    Please reply here with the results of your engagement of the Word team. Thanks.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-02-12T20:30:58+00:00

    For the record I am having the same issue and I am a Windows user, however one of the contributors is on MAC.

    (Version 2211 Build 16.0.15831.20220) 64-bit

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-02-12T20:40:10+00:00

    Well, I got an email from someone on the Word team asking for the entire document, which I can provide for contractual reasons. I asked if there was another way to provide them with what they need. No response. They also never provided a case number or anything.

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