Have you heard about this utility?

Document Metadata Cleaner.. http://www.pointstone.com/products/metadata-cleaner/

A quote..

Whenever you create, open, or save a document in Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint, that document may store information (known as metadata) that you had no intention of including or disclosing.

Metadata information that can be stored on your documents:

• Your name
• Your initials
• Your company or organization name
• The name of your computer
• The name of the network server or hard disk where you saved the document
• The names of previous document authors
• Document revisions
• Document versions
• Hidden text or cells
• Comments

Wow.. all that info gets transmitted with each document? I must install this software and see just what I am unwittingly giving away.

What an anti-climax!! I am giving away my name, the name of the document, the length of time that I had it open originally, and the date that it was saved or last edited.

Golly gee whiz!!

Why would I care about it? If I was to worry about the metadata, maybe I shouldn’t be sending the content of the document either.

In any case, Microsoft Office allows the removal or inclusion of metadata. This is the link for Office 2003, but the same applies to later Office versions too.. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/825576

Maybe I am just NOT the paranoiac type. Should I be?