Microsoft Office has some serious problems with privacy, as this official report for the Dutch government explains:
“Microsoft systematically collects data on a large scale about the individual use of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. Covertly, without informing people, … Microsoft does not offer any choice with regard to the amount of data, or possibility to switch off the collection, or ability to see what data are collected…”
We would recommend you drop Microsoft Office for your own sake, and for the sake of people you deal with (friends, customers, co-workers). There are better alternatives that offer the same features without violating people’s privacy.
CryptPad
CryptPad is a collection of open source and privacy-friendly collaboration tools. It’s a complete online office suite that is end-to-end encrypted, no one except you (and whoever you give your access keys to) can access your data. It lets you easily create rich text and Markdown documents, presentations, spreadsheets, poll, forms & kanban in your web browser.
Everyone can host their own instance following the Administrator Guide. However, for less tech-savvy people, you can use the flagship instance, maintained by the developers of the project. The service is free up to a certain storage limit, with paid accounts for additional storage. You can even use the free service without registering if you want to. It’s worth registering though, as you can keep your documents permanently online this way.
- Project website:
- Instances:
- cryptpad.fr (flagship)
- cryptpad.digitalcourage.de
- Documentation:
LibreOffice
The most popular free open source alternative to Microsoft Office is the LibreOffice suite.
The suite is made up of Writer (equivalent to Word), Calc (equivalent to Excel), Impress (equivalent to PowerPoint), Base (equivalent to Access), Draw (equivalent to Visio or CorelDraw), and Math (a mathematical formula editor).
LibreOffice is compatible with Microsoft file formats, so you don’t have to convert files, and it works in a broadly similar way.
- Windows / Mac / Linux app:
- Android app:
Thunderbird
The most popular open source email app for computers is Thunderbird. While primarily focused on email management, Thunderbird also comes with some extra features such as: viewing RSS feeds, calendar extension, events/tasks list, and integration with some external chat services.
- Website: Mozilla Thunderbird