Microsoft Office - how to improve your privacy

Private users, but above all employees in companies, must pay attention to data protection and protect their privacy when working with Microsoft Office 2019 Home and Student or Home & Business or Microsoft Office 2019 Professional. The company itself provides several options precisely for this purpose. So anyone who now wants a new Buy Microsoft Office is well advised to follow these tips.

Buy Microsoft Office - these versions are available

The various Microsoft Office 365 options are subscription-only systems. The situation is different with Microsoft Office 2019. Here, the different packages are offered for one-time purchase.

These features are included in the versions:

Microsoft Office 2019 Home and Student is the slimmest version of all. This includes only the basic applications Word for word processing and text layout, Excel for spreadsheets and calculations, and PowerPoint for presentations. Microsoft Office 2019 Home & Businessis suitable for private users as well as for small businesses and self-employed persons. In addition to the basic applications, this package also has Outlook, the organiser for the office, which can be used to create emails that can be immediately organised with the integrated calendar, for example for meetings or appointments. Microsoft Office 2019 Professional is – as the name suggests – intended for professional use in companies. Among other things, this version convinces with two additional features Publisher is the layout software with which publications such as flyers, brochures, invitations, catalogues and the like can be professionally created. Access makes it possible to create and manage database applications. The databases can be created as apps for the PC or as applications for the browser and can be easily made accessible to others after completion.

Protecting data in Microsoft Office 2019

PC applications must be secure and not make it easy for outside access. Protecting data and securing privacy is therefore the top priority! Microsoft provides both local setting options and group policies for precisely this purpose, with which the settings for security are executed locally The first thing to do is to check the cloud connection. If, for example, sensitive data is stored in OneDrive, data protection can quickly be violated. The check takes place under the menu item „Account“ in the „File“ tab. Here you can see which user account a user uses and for which cloud storage links exist. In addition, the policies control which security settings should apply to Microsoft Office 2019 Attention: Office 2016 often appears as the current version in the settings. This note can be ignored, as Microsoft Office 2019 contains the exact same configurations The settings for this are made via

  1. Computer configuration
  2. Policies
  3. Administrative templates and user configuration
  4. Policies
  5. Administrative templates
  6. Microsoft Office 2016
  7. Security settings

Further settings for securing privacy and protecting data can be found under [/vc_column_text ]

  1. User configuration
  2. Policies
  3. Administrative templates and user configuration
  4. Policies
  5. Administrative templates
  6. Microsoft Office 2016
  7. Privacy
  8. Trust Center

Not only the central settings for all Office programmes play a role, but also the protection for individual programmes. For this purpose, there are subfolders for each application with which the security of this programme can be improved. Special attention should be paid to Outlook. The setting for this can be found under

  1. User Configuration
  2. Policies
  3. Administrative Templates
  4. Microsoft Outlook 2016
  5. Security
  6. Trust Center

The settings Security / Restrict settings for automatic download of pictures determine how Outlook should proceed when downloading pictures from the Internet.

Think about the macros for protection too!

Especially for networks, macros (chain of commands in an application programme) are a danger that should not be underestimated. The reason: Office programmes execute actions via an external code. This creates the possibility that data can be viewed or even stolen by unauthorised persons. The Trust Centre offers configuration options that determine how Office should react. Everything about this can be found under the menu item Macro Settings. If macros do not have a signature, they are blocked by Office programmes. For group policies, the settings for this are to be made with the following steps:

  1. User Configuration
  2. Policies
  3. Administrative Templates
  4. Microsoft Office 2016

Attention: Separate settings should be made for each Office application.

Trust Center privacy settings

The Trust Centre is called up via the Filetab and the Options menu item . Under Settings for the Trust Centreyou will find the menu item Privacy Options. Here you can make further settings for data protection that apply to all Office programmes. These include, among other things, the selection of diagnostic data that is transmitted to Microsoft or individual settings for the account as well as the local installation of Microsoft Office 2019 Tip:The document check can be used to determine whether data is hidden in a document that is not intended for the recipient.

Counteracting viruses

If you’re going to buy a new Microsoft Office, you might as well start thinking about outside attacks on your data and privacy. As best virus protection solution for Windows here is Microsoft Defender Antivirus. The programme scores with comprehensive real-time protection against viruses, malware and spyware in e-mails, apps, the cloud and downloads from the Internet.

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