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Microsoft Says Copilot Gained Access to Confidential Outlook Emails Due to Bug: Report

Microsoft Says Copilot Gained Access to Confidential Outlook Emails Due to Bug: Report

Microsoft Copilot bug, identified as CW1226324, was first detected on January 21.

Written by Nithya P Nair, Edited by David Delima | Updated: 19 February 2026 10:58 IST

Microsoft Says Copilot Gained Access to Confidential Outlook Emails Due to Bug: Report

Photo Credit: Microsoft

Microsoft reportedly attributed the issue to an unspecified code error

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Highlights

Microsoft bug exposed confidential emails to Copilot AI
The bug bypassed Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies
Microsoft reportedly acknowledged the issue

Microsoft added Copilot Chat across its Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook platforms last year. Now, a recently discovered bug appears to have caused trouble. A Microsoft 365 Copilot bug reportedly allowed the AI assistant to summarise confidential emails for several weeks without permission. This move bypasses Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies that organisations use to protect sensitive data. Microsoft said to have issued a fix for the bug, but the situation has raised serious privacy concerns. Outlook's confidential labelling is generally used for communicating sensitive data.

How Microsoft's Copilot AI Accessed Confidential Outlook Emails

The company confirmed to Bleeping Computer that a Microsoft 365 Copilot bug allowed the AI assistant to summarise confidential emails since late January. The bug, identified as CW1226324, was first detected on January 21, and it reportedly affects the Copilot "work tab" chat feature.

The flaw causes Copilot to read and summarise emails stored in users' Sent Items and Drafts folders, including messages protected with confidentiality labels designed to restrict access by automated processing.

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The bug reportedly bypassed Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies, which organisations rely on to safeguard sensitive information. Microsoft reportedly acknowledged the issue, saying, “Users' email messages with a confidential label applied are being incorrectly processed by Microsoft 365 Copilot chat". The company reportedly said that the 'work tab Chat' feature was summarising such emails despite sensitivity labels and DLP policies being in place.

The company reportedly attributed the issue to an unspecified code error and said it began rolling out a fix in early February. The report further states that as of Wednesday, the company said it continues to monitor the deployment and is contacting a subset of affected users to confirm the fix is functioning.

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Microsoft has not disclosed how many users are affected by this bug. The latest bug comes as Microsoft expands to AI capabilities across Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The company launched new AI-powered shopping features for Copilot in the Edge browser late last year.

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Further reading: Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft Copilot Bug, Microsoft, Microsoft 365

Nithya P Nair

Email Nithya P Nair

Nithya P Nair is a journalist with more than five years of experience in digital journalism. She specialises in business and technology beats. A foodie at heart, Nithya loves exploring new places (read cuisines) and sneaking in Malayalam movie dialogues to spice up conversations. More