Reply to post: Re: "The Dutch authorities are working with the company to fix the situation"

Microsoft menaced with GDPR mega-fines in Europe for 'large scale and covert' gathering of people's info via Office

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: "The Dutch authorities are working with the company to fix the situation"

The word "compatible" has a special meaning in the computer industry

It means compatible with the current version of the software and no guarantees about past of future versions.

There is, however, an open standard for word processing, spreadsheets etc. which is well defined and ensures that your future self, or your successors, will be able to open those documents. Because it's an open, well defined document it means that even if your current product is discontinued it will be possible for someone else to write equivalent S/W so that your access to your old documents will not be blocked. That should be a fairly important consideration for governments whose documents might will have legal significance in decades or even centuries to come.

Oddly enough that's not Microsoft Office's format, it's the one used by the software you imply has problems when being exchanged.

The risk of future incompatibility wasn't in the terms of reference of this report and hence is only alluded to in passing. If one were to do a full risk analysis it should be one of the highlights.

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