Bonum Certa Men Certa

Why You Should Not Use Microsoft Office 365



Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer.

Quoting Wikipedia to Explain Why You Should Not Use Microsoft Office 365.



Microsoft 365, or Office 365 has a terrible record on security, which is one of the reasons you should not use it.



Another reason is that if your “subscription” expires, even the desktop versions will go into “read-only” mode and prevent you from editing or creating any new documents until you’re paying Microsoft for a subscription again.



Even the older licensing model required a “Product Activation” server, but it was only to check if you paid the licensing fee, one time, whereas the licensing fees for Microsoft 365 never stop unless you want the programs to turn into document viewers that can’t do anything else.



Let’s just look at what Wikipedia says about “Security” and directly quote it (note that this is the September 7th, 2023 edit, and it may change later. Microsoft even pays PR firms to vandalize Wikipedia and downplay and edit out embarrassing information.



In spite of claiming to comply with European data protection standards, and in spite of existing Safe Harbor agreements, Microsoft has admitted that it will not refrain from handing over data stored on its European servers to US authorities under the Patriot Act.[88]



In FinlandFICORA has warned Office 365 users of phishing incidents and break-ins that have caused losses of millions of euros.[89][90]



In July 2019, the German state of Hesse outlawed the use of Office 365 in educational institutions, citing privacy risks.[92]



In December 2020, the US Department of Commerce was breached via Office 365. The attackers were able to access staff emails for several months.[93][94]

Wikipedia


So, Microsoft will turn over your documents to US authorities under a rubber-stamp procedure under the USA PATRIOT ACT, no matter where it claims to store them, and in violation of your own country’s privacy laws. Many of these procedures don’t even require the government to ask a judge in an American court. They can just get the files.



(National Security Letters work this way, and they couldn’t tell you they handed the files over even if they wanted to, because they come with a gag order. The point of this is you won’t know there’s an investigation until they’ve arrested you and have already built the case.)



Microsoft “online services” are notorious for break-ins, so Finland’s warning shouldn’t be a surprise. When they break into the server, criminals can take your documents and files too. They can use them to steal trade secrets or blackmail you.



The United States government has been breached at least once, and for several months, and there’s no telling where the Department of Commerce’s mail ended up



(Russians? Chinese? Even the US government gets no security when they use Microsoft products.)



Microsoft 365 is banned for use in classrooms in at least one German state, which has deemed it too insecure to even use at all.



Also, this is the stuff that survived Microsoft’s PR firm “pruning” things from Wikipedia.



None of this things can happen to you if you use LibreOffice, and store your documents on your own computer.



Also, LibreOffice never goes into “read-only” mode if you stop paying a monthly fee. There is no fee.



People working with/for online trolling firms (like IBM, who now promotes MS Office to Linux users via a Web browser) or who have been brainwashed by them like to paint people who insist on real software as some sort of aging hipster or a crank, but it’s all part of the rub.



“Web Apps” that do something that you could do with locally executed computer software almost always have few or no real advantages for you, but they do give someone power to steal and leak your data, and force you to constantly pay them more money under threat of losing access to the program entirely.



When I was a teenager, I railed against “Product Activators” for locally installed software too. I see that a lot of software uses those now, but I decline to use anything that makes you submit to a Web server to continue executing the program.



There may be some sort of “illegal crack”, which is what paying customers would always eventually have to do to keep their binaries working when the activation server no longer exists. So you can pay and THEN still be forced to make the decision between committing a crime or not, later on, after you use and need the software.



So far, Microsoft has hidden this facet by keeping the activation servers for, I think, even Windows and Office XP running, but they won’t do that forever.



(I do not support piracy of Microsoft software. Piracy of Microsoft software is always a terrible thing, and should never be done, because then there are more copies of the software. Also, they can come with viruses, but the Microsoft software itself is usually at least as bad as the virus that comes with it.)



If I can still use WordStar in DOS, why can’t a person who bought Office XP have binaries that will always work if they want to use them in 2050 somehow?



One point of subscription models is forcing users to update even when the program changes in ways that make it difficult for them to adjust to, or remove features they needed.



So add all of this to the list of reasons not to use Microsoft 365 or any “Clown Office”.



Recent Techrights' Posts

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has Un-cancelled the Best People, Just in Time for the Big 4-0
Mr. Oliva should have been there all along (since 2019)
Most "Modern" Technology Makes You Slower and Dumber
Because proprietary software makes you worse off
"What Comes After Free Software?" Wrongly Insinuates We've Reached the Goal (Prison is Not the Goal)
The oil tycoons use similar tactics against environmentalists, giving them fake "wins"
Making More Work Space
I learned the hard way that less is more in circumstances where more means distraction
MAHA is a Lie, Public Officials Never Valued Citizens' Health (They Still Value Private Businesses, Their Sponsors)
Reject demagogues
New Techrights Turns 2
Today starts the third year of the SSG-based Techrights
 
Gemini Links 24/09/2025: Gemlogs and Politics
Links for the day
Links 23/09/2025: Japan Limits Uses of Skinnerboxes ('Smartphones') With Toxic "Apps", Fentanylware (TikTok) Tapped by "MAGAts"
Links for the day
Brett Wilson LLP Has Just Been Sued (by Their Own Clients!)
Vladimir and Alla Yanpolsky sued Brett Wilson LLP in BL-2025-001167 at the end of last week
The Complaint About Brett Wilson LLP - Part II - UK SLAPPs for Americans, SLAPPs for Profit
Brett Wilson LLP has a track record of this kind
Mayday: Optus emergency calling crisis
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 23/09/2025: Massive Data Breach, Slop Versus Productivity, and Vista 11 Update Breaks Things Again
Links for the day
Code of Censorship
Extortion is peace
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has a New Press Kit for the Weekend After Next Weekend (40th Anniversary)
miles better than social [sic] media [sic] quips, moderated by narcissists and oil tycoons.
Microsoft Had Two Waves of Mass Layoffs This Month (That We Know of) and It'll Get Worse for Microsoft Soon
Will the axe fall again by month's end?
Gemini Links 23/09/2025: Happy Equinox, Photronic Arts, and Perception Cognition
Links for the day
Lessons We've Learned After 17 Years of American Hosting
GAFAM is "all-in" with the "Trump agenda"
Back to Normal Now, We Plan to Do More In-Depth Series (or Multi-part Stories)
Articles (or series thereof) that contain philosophy are important to us
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 22, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, September 22, 2025
Microsoft Media is Panicking Amid Mass Layoffs Every Month, H-1B Fees, and "Seattle’s Tech Scene in Trouble"
In "late stage Microsoft", copyleft becomes proprietary
The Next Wave of IBM/Red Hat Layoffs Being Discussed Already
Red Hat is sort of disappearing the way Tivoli did
What Scares Them the Most is Independent News Sites That They Cannot Control and Censor
Wikileaks was a good example of this
If You Don't Control Your Online Platform, Then Someone Else is Controlling You
be (or become) independent
Oracle Started This Year With Slop. Then It Stopped.
Passing fads are like this
Distros That Run on PCs Made 20 Years Ago and Don't Use Systemd
Betas for now
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Has a Policy on Racism and Sexism
In then future we'll show the misogyny and racial slurs
The Complaint About Brett Wilson LLP - Part I - Abusing British Women on Behalf of American Men Who Abuse American Women
Transparency is important to us, so we've decided to make this series
Slopwatch: Google News and the Evident Slopfarm Infestation
This is what people get about Linux when they query Google for Linux
Links 22/09/2025: Murdochs Might Join Fentanylware (TikTok) 'Investors' (Masters), United Kingdom Recognises Palestinian Statehood
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/09/2025: Esperanto Music History and Apps For Android
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2025: More American 'Censorship' (Retaliation for Journalism), Cheeto "Might Be Losing His Race Against Time"
Links for the day
The Blob Slop
Give me more words, give me some text
The 50-Pound Note Experiment and the "War on Cash"
Britain is actually seeing a rebound in cash payments, and it's not a temporary phenomenon
Slopwatch: Blaming the Victims for Microsoft's Failures and Plagiarising Phoronix
That's what Google has been reduced to: slop and slopfarms
Links 22/09/2025: Breaches, Windows TCO, and Arrests
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/09/2025: Rabbit Hole and DeGoogling Fairphone
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2025: Russian War Planes Invade NATO Airspace While Dihydroxyacetone Man Escalates Attack on Free Speech Because of Critics
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, September 21, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, September 21, 2025
Links 21/09/2025: "Hey Hi" (Hype) Under Fire, Fakes Identified; Tesla Burns Family
Links for the day
Google's Software is Malware and Malware in Mobile Devices
Originally posted by Rob Musial
Links 20/09/2025: Hegemony Coming to a Close, Luigi Mangione Ruled Not Terrorist
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/09/2025: "Charlie Kirk Was a Hateful Piece of Shit" and Slop Code Attempted by Microsofter
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, September 20, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, September 20, 2025