How to Opt Out of the Microsoft Office Customer Experience Improvement Program

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When you install any recent version of Microsoft Office, Microsoft assumes that you want to sign up for the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP). There’s a check box during installation that’s selected by default and automatically signs you up for the program.

According to Microsoft, the CEIP is a tool that collects customer information to try “to improve the products and features customers use most often and to help solve problems.” Even though Microsoft claims that no personal or identifiable information is collected, it can still be worrying to people concerned about online privacy. As stated in their privacy policy:

“When you participate, we collect basic information about how you use your programs, your computer or device, and connected devices. We also collect information about how each is set up and performing. These reports are sent to Microsoft to help improve the features our customers use most often and to create solutions to common problems.”

If you have inadvertently signed up for the CEIP, but don’t want to participate, fear not. It’s easy to opt out of this program. We will use Office 2013 to show you how to do this, but you can change this setting in one of the other Office programs, as well.