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
    2023-06-27T16:52:28+00:00

    Hi,

    I thought I might as well add my tupence to this thread so the MS learning engine might find some corrolation.

    The random user appearing in my documents is "Reti, Gabor".

    I'm using the Mac OS Word Dektop App

    It's always the "Formatted" type change

    Yes the document was cteated from scratch in-house and has never been shared with anyone outside the firm

    I'm unable to confirm if the Online version shows the same thing as the online version doesn't show changes of type "formatted"

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  2. Jim G 134.1K Reputation points MVP
    2023-02-17T17:34:10+00:00

    Hi David,

    Thanks for the "me too" reply, but it's very important for ALL affected users to send in a report to Microsoft so they know how widespread the problem is.

    In Microsoft Word, use the Menu Bar. Choose Help > Feedback > I Don't Like Something to tell Microsoft you are affected by this problem.

    Thanks.

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  3. 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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  4. 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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  5. Anonymous
    2023-02-06T20:48:08+00:00

    Double checking - all 6 of the reviewers magically appeared, not just the 3 with the red arrows, correct?

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