Does the new Outlook copy your email to the Microsoft cloud?

“All I did was install Outlook on my phone and add the office mailbox.” Lots of people do exactly that, and it works. What the app doesn’t say out loud is where a copy of your email goes from that moment on.

Does the new Outlook really copy your email to the Microsoft cloud?

Yes, for the accounts Microsoft lists. On its support page “Sync your account in Outlook to the Microsoft Cloud”, Microsoft writes that syncing your account means a copy of your email, calendar and contacts is synced between your email provider and Microsoft’s data centres.

The apps and accounts affected, according to the same page:

App	Accounts synced with the Microsoft Cloud
Outlook for iPhone and iPad	Gmail, Yahoo, iCloud, IMAP
Outlook for Android	Gmail, Yahoo, iCloud, IMAP
New Outlook for Mac	Gmail, Yahoo, iCloud, IMAP
New Outlook for Windows	Gmail, Yahoo

IMAP is the standard way almost every business email provider lets you read your mailbox. So this affects you even if your email is not with Microsoft.

Why does Outlook do it?

To offer its features on mailboxes that aren’t Microsoft’s too. The page lists search, Focused Inbox, reminders, and meeting and calendar management: features that run on Microsoft’s servers, and so need the data there.

Technically, it’s a consistent choice. The price is that your email no longer travels only between you and your provider.

What does it mean for a Swiss business?

It changes who has a copy of your email and which rules apply to that copy. Microsoft writes that the Microsoft Services Agreement and the Microsoft Privacy Statement apply to the synced account data, in addition to your provider’s terms.

In practice, three things:

• One more provider. Your email holds contracts, quotes and customer data. Under the revised Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection, in force since 1 September 2023, anyone processing personal data must know who they entrust it to.
• Another country’s rules. Microsoft is an American company. The CLOUD Act of 2018 allows US authorities to demand from an American provider the data it controls, wherever it is stored.
• A copy to remember. If you change provider or close a mailbox, the copy in the Microsoft cloud is one more place to think about. The support page doesn’t explain how to delete it.

We are not saying anyone reads your email. We are saying a copy exists, and you don’t set the rules for that copy.

How can you read your email without going through an intermediate cloud?

Use an app that connects directly to your mail server. It’s simpler than it sounds:

1. On your computer, traditional email programs, such as Thunderbird or classic Outlook for Windows with an IMAP account, read mail directly from the server.
2. Ask your provider where the server is and whether its webmail works without going through third-party services.
3. On your phone it’s harder, because the most popular app for people coming from Outlook is exactly the one that syncs with the cloud.

For phone and computer, there are the Akomodix apps: web, iPhone, Android and desktop, connected directly to the server, with no intermediate cloud and no third-party tracking kits. On our platform, the server blocks the new Outlook, with a message explaining why. We’d rather tell you up front than have you find out later.

What can you do today?

Check which apps your staff use for office email, especially on their phones. Every day a synced app stays connected, the copy in the cloud is updated with new messages.

If you’d like to know, app by app, where your company’s email goes, write to us: we’ll tell you honestly, even if the answer is that everything is already fine.