Sending of diagnostic data to Microsoft must be disabled.

Severity	Group ID	Group Title	Version	Rule ID	Date	STIG Version
medium	V-278355	SRG-APP-000141	O365-CO-000028	SV-278355r1152352_rule	2025-11-12	3

Description
Diagnostic data is used to keep Office secure and up to date; detect, diagnose and remediate problems; and make product improvements.

ℹ️ Check
Verify the policy value for User Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Microsoft Office 2016 >> Privacy >> Trust Center >> "Configure the level of client software diagnostic data sent by Office to Microsoft" is set to "Enabled", and "Neither" from the Options is selected. Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following key: HKCU\software\policies\Microsoft\office\common\clienttelemetry If the value "SendTelemetry" is "REG_DWORD = 3", this is not a finding. If the registry key does not exist or is not configured properly, this is a finding.

ℹ️ Check

Verify the policy value for User Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Microsoft Office 2016 >> Privacy >> Trust Center >> "Configure the level of client software diagnostic data sent by Office to Microsoft" is set to "Enabled", and "Neither" from the Options is selected. Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following key: HKCU\software\policies\Microsoft\office\common\clienttelemetry If the value "SendTelemetry" is "REG_DWORD = 3", this is not a finding. If the registry key does not exist or is not configured properly, this is a finding.

✔️ Fix
Set the policy value for User Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Microsoft Office 2016 >> Privacy >> Trust Center >> "Configure the level of client software diagnostic data sent by Office to Microsoft" to "Enabled" and select "Neither" from the Options.