Current-era Microsoft continuing to push the boundaries of consent.
Microsoft Edge is a good browser but for some reason Microsoft keeps trying to shove it down everyone’s throat and make it more difficult to use rivals like Chrome or Firefox. Microsoft has now started notifying IT admins that it will force Outlook and Teams to ignore the default web browser on Windows and open links in Microsoft Edge instead.
I tried using outlook this year for the first time in 15 years, and immediately NOPED the fuck out when I noticed it displayed ads in-line with my inbox.
And then there are those rumors that they want to display ads in the settings panel. Fuck Microsoft, they have ZERO trustworthiness in my book
I unfortunatelly have to use outlook and teams at work. If this really becomes the case, I will both write to EU regulators and try to petition our IT to move away from microsoft teams and potentially outlook.
If you work for an EU company using Outlook might be illegal, as they now send all emails unencrypted via their own servers.
At our work place, which is mostly Linux, some people have been using outlook if they opt to use windows or Mac or android or iPhone. And when outlook started to send all emails via their own servers (not respecting your smtp settings and such), we instated a full ban on using all outlook clients on all platform.
It's really sad, as a Linux user I think outlook used to be the best email client period. Before this privacy hell and before adds in the program of course.
Same for me. My company talks a big game, but is bad at audits or detection for authorized devices / unauthorized access.
I wiped my work pc and ran linux daily for a year. Remina for remote management was far better than the native RDP client in Windows. Web based outlook got the job done. Teams app in Windows is just reskinned chrome anyhow. Works just as good in a browser. Had a remote box set up for any thing that absolutely required Windows.
Gmail does this too. I'm pretty sure my adblocker handles them on my PC but I see them on the mobile app all the time.
We use o365 for work so I'm seeped in that environment already. I tried using o365 for my personal email for about 3 months and finally gave up and went back to gmail.
Its usually in the separate tab, the "promotion" tab, where they send most subscriptions emails. It's not good, but it could be miles worse. Yahoo mail for example is a lot worse: you get Ads in the website taking away screen space unless you pay a premium
I see a couple of ad "emails" entries in my promotion side of the inbox, usually in the 3-4 rows, and I also use both adblock + uorigin. Again, not really disrupting, because its usually a section of the inbox I dont go into too much, but I can see it being annoying for others
I have never experienced this with Gmail, though I use ublock as you mentioned. I haven't seen any through the gmail app on mobile either.
Email is an open protocol, there's no reason to continue using an email client (web or otherwise) that displays ads. I highly recommend you use something like thunderbird if this is your experience.
Ads are pernicious no matter where they appear, but them being associated with any kind of personal communication is fucking nuts, I wish we wouldn't normalize it.