The new Outlook shares your data

Outlook has been the go-to choice for many individuals and businesses—including us—for decades; however, in recent years, certain decisions have been made that make it difficult for us to continue using it.

With the introduction of “New Outlook for Windows,” something has fundamentally changed. What used to be a local program that simply retrieved emails has now turned into a data-collection machine. And into a webshell or a website disguised as a local application. Here’s what you need to know about your data, the advertising, and the 801 partners who are looking over your shoulder. We already reported on the switch to the new Outlook, and it’s also mentioned in our Knowledge Base article as well as in our tutorial video on setting up the email address you’ve configured through our hosting.

We have therefore been recommending that our customers look for alternatives for quite some time. Thunderbird and eMclient both work excellently and are free for personal use. eMclient is only subject to a fee if you use it for business purposes. Thunderbird is completely free.

Ads in Outlook

You’ll quickly notice this when you start using the new Outlook: it’s the ads that appear there. Not only can this be annoying, but it also uses your browsing history to recommend personalized ads. So if you’ve ordered a new pair of pants and receive an email about it, you might see ads for a similar pair.

Something that has no place in your own email.

801 third-party providers & data is sent to the U.S.

Anyone who looks into the privacy settings of the new Outlook is in for a bit of a shock. Microsoft works with no fewer than 801 external advertising partners. By agreeing to the terms, you indirectly give these parties the ability to collect data about your interactions.

This manifests as ads appearing in the middle of your personal emails. They look like real messages, which is not only annoying but can also be dangerous (think of confusion with phishing). Microsoft uses your browsing behavior and metadata to personalize these ads. So, if you’re buying a pair of pants, the advertising partner in your Outlook often knows about it faster than you think.

Although European data protection laws (GDPR) are strict, the fact remains that Microsoft is an American company. A large portion of the processed data is sent to servers in the United States. This has been criticized by data protection authorities for years, as the U.S. government can demand access to this data under certain circumstances, which conflicts with our European data protection rights.

Even if you disable all these advertising partners in your settings, you will still receive ads in your inbox.

No option for third-party Exchange

Third-party or local Exchange servers, such as those made possible by our SmarterMail mail servers, still cannot be set up in this new version of Outlook as of the time of writing. Only Microsoft 365 accounts, a few well-known providers, or an IMAP connection are supported. This is, of course, a move to encourage users to sign up for the annual 365 subscription, and it’s frustrating for those who value having all their data remain on our servers in the Netherlands. Unfortunately, you have no choice but to use an alternative if you wish to use an Exchange address from MijnHostingPartner.nl. We recommend that you either continue using the classic Outlook or switch to eMclient.

As of the time of writing this article, Thunderbird is still working on fully supporting local Exchange, and we will certainly announce this in our blog posts as soon as the implementation is complete.

Choose security and Dutch hosting

Microsoft’s transition to a fully cloud-based business model is making things unnecessarily complicated for users of local Exchange servers, such as our SmarterMail solutions. We remain committed to providing a secure, stable hosting environment where your data simply stays on Dutch soil.

Is your priority data privacy and speed? Then use the classic Outlook version while it’s still supported, or switch to eM Client. This way, you’ll benefit from all the familiar business features, but with the data privacy guarantees of MijnHostingPartner.nl.