For outlook users. Microsoft changed things. Microsoft's new Outlook client quietly moves your email to the cloud

[usonian]

https://www.xda-developers.com/privacy-implications-new-microsoft-outlook/

Published in late 2023, but may be impacting people lately.

I'll just summarize. Please read the article if you are having troubles (or will have troubles)

Microsoft recently introduced a new version of Outlook on Windows PCs. It was designed to replace the aging Windows Mail and the classic Outlook, so it introduces a slick new design and significantly tighter cloud integrations while combining your email and calendar into one app. It also introduces new generative AI features, including writing assists and “other advanced AI features."

However, the app also introduces some serious privacy concerns. Based on research from the German blog heise.de, which we’ve been able to reproduce at XDA, it appears that the new Outlook app is far more tightly integrated with the cloud than a user might expect, opening up the scope of potential Microsoft data collection. This represents a significant privacy issue, so there are a lot of questions Microsoft needs to answer about user expectations.

snip

The new version of Outlook has been available since early September and introduces a range of new features. The app already includes new Copilot AI features, and Microsoft has stated that it intends for the new version of Outlook to replace the existing Outlook app within two years. The company has also announced a broader list of upcoming features, which will likely be announced in the coming months (particularly around AI capabilities). The new app also has a fresh UI, bringing it more in line with Microsoft's cloud versions of office apps, as well as tighter integration with other Office services such as Calendar and Word.

snip

However, once you're authenticated, you're presented with an innocuous window informing you that to use the new version of Outlook, Microsoft will need to sync your emails, events, and contacts to Microsoft Cloud. A cancel option is available, but there's no option to refuse and continue using your client. A support link is provided with some more information, which explains that the access enables features such as mail search, a focused inbox, or recurring meetings, but makes no clear statement of the limits of this data collection.

It gets techie, so I hope that some Outlook users who understand this can interpret it for others.

For techies, there's a long Hacker News discussion here: (this week)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41666945
Gets a little hot.

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE.

[Think. Again.]

1. Thank you...

I'm hoping to find some way to turn off the transfer of my personal communications to microsoft owned databases, so I'll read the link you provided and do some more research if necessary.

[usonian]

3. I don't use outlook, so I'm hoping that techies share their knowledge and experiences.

I remember reading that people are having problems with Outlook lately.

[Think. Again.]

5. Yes, luckily my outlook address is old and I don't give that address anymore...

...but I don't want to block any mail from people who only have that address for me by closing the account, and I certainly don't want to hand over all of the communications I do make or have made through that account to anyone to use as they see fit for their own purposes.

[OAITW r.2.0]

2. Been an Outlook user since forever. As long as I can save emails to my project files on my PC...and read/share them, I

am OK. I am pretty much at the end of the line, business wise, so I won't sweat the transition.

[Skittles]

4. the CLOUD is just somone else's computer

fuck that

[Think. Again.]

6. Exactly, which raises concerns about who owns or has a right to OUR private communications.

[DBoon]

7. so if I use an old version of Outlooks I'm OK?

Are there good alternative mail clients for Windows? I hate to use Webmail for privacy reasons.

[SeattleVet]

8. Outlook? Look out!

[keithbvadu2]

9. Office365 Outlook is garbage

Office365 is garbage
It updated itself and Outlook lost every email and address.

That is not an improvement.

[HAB911]

10. If I understand, this pertains to the "Outlook or Mail' app embedded in Windows

not the Outlook app in "Office 20xx". I've used "Office Outlook" for so long I can't remember when my company (GTE/VZ/Lucent) first started using it and none of this scenario is the least bit familiar to me.

Nor does it apply to Outlook.com accessed via browser, which my wife uses with an addr of msn.com?

[usonian]

11. Not a user, so I'll just say one thing.

Outlook.com is entirely web based. So your data is 100% "in the cloud" ( at Microsoft) and not on your computer, unless you download it.

My take is that MS is trying to move people away from desktop data.

I defer to MS experts.

[HAB911]

12. this effort reminds me of MS forcing

the use of One Drive by default, drives me crazy