Random people showing up in Track Changes??

Anonymous

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.

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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50 answers

Anonymous

2023-02-18T03:44:57+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.

Jim, I know this is important, but it is falling on deaf ears. Microsoft ghosted me on this. They contacted me and I responded, but nothing since. That was over a week ago.

Microsoft has gone very far downhill in the last few years with spamming paying customers with constants ads and nagware. This extreme violation of privacy is the last straw for me.

I'm in the process of downloading all my OneDrive files and will switch to Pages and convert to Word when I need to send my editor a Word file. This is so disappointing. I simply can't trust them anymore.
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Anonymous

2023-02-17T00:56:41+00:00

I also am experiencing the same trouble on a Mac with a document shared via sharepoint with multiple authors. But the changes I have made (to formatting) are showing up as random author names (usually names of very senior people from random organisations with LinkedIn profiles).
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Jim G 134.1K Reputation points MVP

2023-02-13T19:34:43+00:00

Hi

If someone can provide a document that exhibits the problem, it would be very helpful. The sample document need not be complex. It should have just enough in it to show the problem and should not have any personal or confidential information.

Place the example on a shared drive such as OneDrive or DropBox and reply here with the share link.

Why a sample file is important for troubleshooting. How to do it.https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/why-a-sample-file-is-important-for-troubleshooting/9441ae3c-1e92-41c6-9a1f-5b377b08e5a5
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Anonymous

2023-02-12T20:49:12+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

I have the same problem on Windows and all collaborators on Windows. It is being looked at by Microsoft.

I'm on Version 2301.
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Anonymous

2023-02-12T20:45:46+00:00

I should also note that I primarily work on a Mac but with this document, I have opened it on my SurfaceBook, running Windows 10. I just checked and the Surfacebook is running a beta channel version of Word (the latest, I believe).

My Mac is running the current channel and the problem has not resurfaced since I rolled back to an earlier version of the document.

I'm going to make a copy of the document and open it on Windows to see if I can reproduce the issue. I'll report back...
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