Outlook mobile app privacy

George_B · 9 Nov 2022, 03:55 AM

Not sure if many people are aware of this but I'm curious to get some input from users and maybe other providers about the Outlook mobile app.

In essence what this app is doing is that it redirects all data to MS ( including authentication in the clear ) and then MS connects to the mail provider to authenticate and retrieve/send e-mails. Basically they have access to all your data without - to my knowledge - ever disclosing this.

So with an IMAP account, Outlook actually connects to MS servers, then MS servers connect to the IMAP provider and act as the middleman.

https://serverfault.com/questions/94...-using-outlook

https://social.technet.microsoft.com...?forum=outlook

https://security.stackexchange.com/q...rosoft-servers

jarland · 11 Nov 2022, 03:42 PM

Yeah, it does that. If I recall that's how Acompli built the app, Microsoft just acquired and rebranded it.

soromak · 19 Nov 2022, 06:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by George_B

Not sure if many people are aware of this but I'm curious to get some input from users and maybe other providers about the Outlook mobile app.

In essence what this app is doing is that it redirects all data to MS ( including authentication in the clear ) and then MS connects to the mail provider to authenticate and retrieve/send e-mails. Basically they have access to all your data without - to my knowledge - ever disclosing this.

So with an IMAP account, Outlook actually connects to MS servers, then MS servers connect to the IMAP provider and act as the middleman.

https://serverfault.com/questions/94...-using-outlook

https://social.technet.microsoft.com...?forum=outlook

https://security.stackexchange.com/q...rosoft-servers

Is it still the case? At that time it was a big deal, including my job IT blocking access of Outlook mobile to our on-premises servers, but I think MS was announcing that they were working to remove this man in the middle approach.

George_B · 23 Dec 2022, 11:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by soromak

Is it still the case? At that time it was a big deal, including my job IT blocking access of Outlook mobile to our on-premises servers, but I think MS was announcing that they were working to remove this man in the middle approach.

It's very much still the case and I'm really wondering why companies do this. There's another big one, myMail - they do the same. It goes against any privacy standard I can think of

It's pretty crazy

9 Nov 2022, 03:55 AM	#1
George_B Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 704 Representative of: PolarisMail.com	Outlook mobile app privacy Not sure if many people are aware of this but I'm curious to get some input from users and maybe other providers about the Outlook mobile app. In essence what this app is doing is that it redirects all data to MS ( including authentication in the clear ) and then MS connects to the mail provider to authenticate and retrieve/send e-mails. Basically they have access to all your data without - to my knowledge - ever disclosing this. So with an IMAP account, Outlook actually connects to MS servers, then MS servers connect to the IMAP provider and act as the middleman. https://serverfault.com/questions/94...-using-outlook https://social.technet.microsoft.com...?forum=outlook https://security.stackexchange.com/q...rosoft-servers

11 Nov 2022, 03:42 PM	#2
jarland Essential Contributor Join Date: Apr 2014 Posts: 399 Representative of: MXRoute.com	Yeah, it does that. If I recall that's how Acompli built the app, Microsoft just acquired and rebranded it.