How to get the most out of Copilot while protecting your data

Artificial intelligence is increasingly becoming a part of our lives, and Microsoft may be the fastest to introduce new AI features into its products. Microsoft Copilot is an AI assistant from Microsoft that can be accessed on Windows 11 and from many apps and services such as Edge, Bing and Office.

This is a truly impressive part of Microsoft’s modern approach to software. Copilot is now more than just a chatbot – it’s a full-fledged assistant that can display images, generate images and text, draft email responses, and more.

But of course, given how deep Copilot’s integration with Microsoft services is becoming, you may be wondering how protected the data you give Copilot is and how to use Copilot while keeping your data safe. Here’s what you need to know.

What permissions does Copilot need?

To get the most out of Copilot, you really need full access to everything on your computer. That’s right – all the documents, emails, images and files you have on your computer can be viewed by Copilot if you give it access to it. Please keep this in mind if you store sensitive files on your computer.

To be fair, Windows as a whole also has this access. Microsoft increasingly wants users to view Copilot as part of the Microsoft and Windows experience, rather than as an application that runs on Windows. Microsoft has been transparent about its approach to the responsible development of AI, including developing AI systems in compliance with the Microsoft Privacy Standard. This “standard” essentially states that while Microsoft collects data from users who use Microsoft products, users can control the data Microsoft uses for advertising purposes.

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What Copilot features require an Internet connection?

The functions for which Copilot requires an Internet connection vary slightly depending on your computer. Microsoft recently launched a new generation of computers it calls Microsoft Copilot+ computers, which are designed specifically for better artificial intelligence features. Copilot+ computers are built on the ARM architecture and deliver impressive local AI performance. What’s more, they can actually run so-called “small language models” locally, so many tasks won’t require an Internet connection at all.

For this reason, the new Copilot+ computers actually support a huge range of functions processed locally, rather than in the cloud. However, no All Copilot will run locally.

One feature that has received attention since Microsoft introduced Copilot+ computers is the new Recall feature. This feature essentially takes screenshots of your computer while you’re using it and can then help you link to websites, files, and more. However, according to Microsoft, these snapshots are only stored locally and encrypted on the hard drive. Microsoft says they are not uploaded to the cloud.

Another new feature is the Cocreate feature, which also works locally. This feature is built into software like Paint and Photos, and in Paint it allows users to, for example, sketch an image and combine it with text prompts to create completely new images.

This does not mean that Copilot does not use the cloud at all. On the contrary, while Copilot+ computers can work small language models locally, they cannot be run big language models locally – and whenever you use this service to, for example, find information on the Internet, it will rely on cloud services. Moreover, standard PCs that are not “Copilot+ computers” will rely more heavily on cloud services because they cannot run these new models in small languages ​​locally.

What can you do

So what can you do to make sure your data is protected while using all these new features? Well, there really isn’t much of you need what to do if you want to use Copilot. To be clear, not yet To have to use Copilot at all – you can turn it off in the settings of your Windows computer. And of course, you don’t necessarily have to use specific Copilot features.

Microsoft says Copilot adheres to the same privacy and security standards it already uses – and for now, there’s no reason to suspect that Copilot is secretly collecting data you don’t know about and sending it to third parties. Let’s hope Microsoft doesn’t prove it wrong.