Subj : Copilot AI could soon be available to a lot more Windows 11 users
To   : All
From : TechnologyDaily
Date : Tue Oct 17 2023 11:15:06

Copilot AI could soon be available to a lot more Windows 11 users with a big 
privacy change from Microsoft

Date:
Tue, 17 Oct 2023 09:56:43 +0000

Description:
This privacy move spotted in testing could have ramifications across the OS, 
too, in areas such as the Start menu.

FULL STORY
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Microsoft has an incoming change to Windows 11  or at least its in testing  
that makes some moves on the privacy front over in Europe. 

 Windows Latest spotted something in an older preview build of Windows 11 
that was rather glossed over at the time, but recent happenings with the 
Copilot AI  which has not been made available to European users for privacy 
reasons  throw an interesting new light on the change. 

The preview build were talking about was pushed out in August 2023 in the Dev 
channel (build 23521), and in the blog post introducing it, Microsoft noted 
the following: In the European Economic Area (EEA), Windows will now require 
consent to share data between Windows and other signed-in Microsoft services. 
You will see some Windows features start to check for consent now, with more 
being added in future builds. 

Microsoft goes on to say if this consent is declined by the Windows 11 user, 
that some functionality in Windows features may be unavailable. As an 
example, Microsoft notes that certain file recommendations may not be made in 
the Start menus Recommended panel . 

Thats a potentially intrusive element that weve been a bit concerned about  
in terms of where the line might lie between recommendations and ads, and how 
flexible that line might be  so European users will potentially be able to 
dodge the worst of this. 

Not just that, of course, as this consent applies to other (unspecified) 
Windows features  well come back to that shortly. 

As for the progress of this EEA consent change, it appears to still be 
rolling out to those testing Windows 11 and hasnt come to everyone yet, as 
Windows Latest observes. 

Windows Latest asked Microsoft about this introduction, with the software 
giant replying: We have nothing more to share beyond whats in the blog post 
[for build 23521]. This change was previously rolled out to the Dev Channel 
in August. Analysis: A hopeful hint of a timely landing for Copilot? 

Presumably this change will be more widely rolled out going forward to 
testers, because it might tie in with an important factor that recently 
emerged  namely the availability of Microsofts Copilot AI. 

 As weve previously reported , even though Copilot is now officially out for 
Windows 11 (the release version), its only certain regions that can get the 
AI assistant. Due to stricter privacy regulations in the European Union, 
Microsoft cannot deploy Copilot to users who live there. 

Not yet anyway  but a version of Copilot thats compliant with EU laws is 
underway, and those Windows 11 users will get the AI on their desktop in 
time. 

Now, were just theorizing here, but it seems like Copilot could be one of the 
various features thats bound up with this data-sharing consent measure which 
is now in testing. 

If so, the good news for those in Europe who want Copilot is that the 
groundwork to get the AI available over there was already started a couple of 
months back. And if you think about it, that makes sense  Microsoft wouldve 
known about this issue for some time, after all, so would surely be preparing 
for it in advance. 

We can hope, then, that the wait for the Copilot AI for Windows 11 users in 
Europe might be a shorter one than we expected (and perhaps that other 
regions will follow soon enough, too). You might also like Copilot might be 
the biggest change Microsoft has ever made to its OS Copilot AI needs plenty 
of work - but Microsoft is already improving it Google is working on a 
Microsoft Copilot competitor for Chrome



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Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/computing/windows/copilot-ai-could-soon-be-available
-to-a-lot-more-windows-11-users-with-a-big-privacy-change-from-microsoft


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