Official documentation checked October 14, 2026.
You can limit certain diagnostic and feedback data in Microsoft 365, but there is no verified universal “Copilot telemetry off” switch that leaves the cloud service running while sending Microsoft no usage, service, or interaction data.
Choose the data category first. Office client diagnostics, required service data, optional feedback, and retained Copilot interaction records have different controls.
Define what you want to restrict
- Office client diagnostics: data about the Office application running on a device.
- Required service data: data needed for connected services and essential operations.
- Feedback: user-submitted comments and, when permitted, supporting logs, screenshots, or content samples.
- Interaction records: prompts and responses governed through their applicable history and retention mechanisms.
Write the policy objective in those terms. “Do not send optional Office diagnostics” is testable. “Use online Copilot but transmit nothing” is not an equivalent configuration.
Configure Office client diagnostics with the documented policy
For supported Windows Microsoft 365 Apps, use Microsoft’s Office privacy policy guidance. The diagnostic-level policy offers Required, Optional, or Neither. Selecting Neither stops Office client diagnostic data, but required service data still flows.
Use Cloud Policy or the current Office administrative templates as appropriate. In Group Policy the privacy policies are under User Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Microsoft Office 2016\Privacy\Trust Center, not an invented computer-level Copilot Telemetry Dashboard switch.
- Record the existing configuration and choose a limited pilot group.
- Set the documented diagnostic level to match the approved requirement.
- Confirm assignment and effective policy on the pilot user’s supported client.
- Test required Office and Copilot tasks before expanding the assignment.
Follow platform-specific documentation for Mac, mobile, and web. Windows diagnostic settings do not automatically control every Microsoft 365 application’s diagnostics; Microsoft explains that distinction in its Windows diagnostic guidance.
Manage feedback independently
Microsoft’s feedback policies separately control submission and the inclusion of screenshots, attachments, logs, and relevant content samples. Administrators can find those policies through Cloud Policy by searching for feedback or survey settings.
Decide whether users may send general feedback but not supporting content, or whether the organization requires a different restriction. Document the decision and test the visible feedback experience with nonsensitive material. Do not ask users to upload confidential prompts to prove that the policy works.
Do not confuse connected experiences with telemetry
Copilot needs cloud processing for its online functions. Disabling content-analyzing connected experiences can remove Copilot availability in supported Office apps. Disabling experiences that download online content is not a universal way to prevent prompt transmission while preserving Copilot.
Before changing a connected-experience policy, list the features it affects and agree the functional tradeoff. If the requirement is to prohibit that cloud processing entirely, disabling the relevant service may be appropriate; presenting it as a telemetry-only change would be misleading.
For retained interactions, review Copilot retention separately. A client diagnostic preference does not delete server-side conversation or compliance records.
Verify the configured scope, not an empty dashboard
Check policy assignment, precedence, effective client settings, and a controlled before/after test. Microsoft links diagnostic inspection tools from its privacy documentation; use them only within their documented scope and your organization’s monitoring rules.
Service health reports describe service incidents, not a meter proving telemetry has stopped. Usage reporting and audit records may continue for other reasons, and existing records can remain after a policy change. Neither a populated report nor an empty report alone proves that optional client diagnostics are enabled or disabled.
If results differ from the intended policy, collect the client version, user group, policy source, and sanitized evidence. Do not use a fabricated Set-CopilotDataCollection operation or a per-user license checkbox as a diagnostic method.