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Outlook Mobile comes with feature to turn off Copilot

Data from business users can't be used for training LLMs this way

Outlook Mobile comes with feature to turn off Copilot

The latest Microsoft’s Outlook Mobile build for Android and iOS gives end users more privacy options. Now, it is also possible to turn off Copilot’s operation within the mobile app.

With this fifth update for October 2024, build 4.2442.0, Microsoft has implemented several features designed to further safeguard end users’ privacy.

This time, the tech giant updated the privacy control for ‘Connected experiences that analyze your content’. In the past, this setting allowed users to turn off cloud-based services for their Outlook app. Things like location suggestions, weather information in the calendar, and sharing feedback with Microsoft.

Turning off Copilot

The now-released update also allows this specific setting to disable the use of Copilot. This prevents Microsoft, but perhaps other parties as well, from using this AI assistant for their apps or tools and from being able to read (sensitive) data from the mobile app and process it in their underlying LLMs.

Companies that often work with sensitive information can prevent the tech giant from harvesting their data, which Copilot sends back to train its LLMs.

Last update October

This is the last update the Outlook Mobile mobile app for Android and iOS will receive for October. This month’s previous four updates also brought more privacy-enhancing measures to the app. These included opening Information Rights Managed (IRM) files directly in the individual Word, Excel and PowerPoint apps or the Microsoft 365 app.

The first new update for Outlook Mobile for next month is expected November 6.

Also read: Microsoft rolls out inbound SMTP DANE and DNSSEC in Exchange Online