Copilot AI was reading your private emails, confirms Microsoft: Are you safe?

Microsoft has acknowledged an issue in its Copilot AI service that allowed the system to process and summarise users’ confidential emails without proper permission. The problem lasted for several weeks and raised concerns about how sensitive information was handled by the company’s AI tools. Copilot Chat had been able to access and generate summaries of emails as far back as January, reports TechCrunch. This happened even in cases where organisations had set up strict data loss prevention policies to stop sensitive content from being shared with Microsoft’s large language models.

Survey

Copilot Chat enables Microsoft 365 subscribers to access AI-powered chat capabilities within Office applications such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The feature is meant to help users quickly analyse information, draft content, and summarise documents or conversations. However, due to the bug, it also processed emails marked as confidential.

Add As A Trusted Source For Google.

Add as a preferred source on Google

Also read: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, Galaxy S26 Plus, Galaxy S26 pre-reservations benefit revealed: Launch date, specs, price and more

Microsoft said the bug, trackable by admins as CW1226324, means that draft and sent email messages ‘with a confidential label applied are being incorrectly processed by Microsoft 365 Copilot chat.’ In simple terms, emails that should have remained restricted were mistakenly treated as content that Copilot could read and summarise.

The company stated that it started rolling out a fix earlier in February to address the issue, though it has not shared details about how many customers may have been affected.

Also read: Nothing Phone 4a Pro and 4a India launch date announced: Check expected specs and price

The incident has added to growing concerns worldwide about how AI systems handle sensitive workplace data. Earlier this week, the IT department of the European Parliament reportedly blocked built-in AI features on official staff devices. The move was taken as a precaution amid fears that such tools might upload confidential communications to cloud-based systems.

Also read: Anthropic launches Claude Sonnet 4.6 AI model with improved coding and computer use skills

Follow Us

Ayushi Jain

Ayushi works as Chief Copy Editor at Digit, covering everything from breaking tech news to in-depth smartphone reviews. Prior to Digit, she was part of the editorial team at IANS. View Full Profile