Microsoft excludes Domain Exclusion from MS 365 Copilot – days after rolling it out
Perhaps an allow list of domains might be better?
Microsoft has unexpectedly withdrawn Domain Exclusion for Microsoft 365 Copilot, shortly after promoting it as a means to prevent the assistant from drawing its answers from untrusted websites. Announced last month, Domain Exclusion enabled administrators to create a list of up to 1,000 blocked web domains using PowerShell. The feature was designed to give organizations control over the sources Copilot could consult, aligning web-grounded experiences with organizational policies, compliance expectations, and trusted sources.
Microsoft stated that Domain Exclusion would support a more governed approach to AI adoption. However, the company has now rolled back the feature, citing the need to "actively evaluate next steps." The company did not provide a reason for the sudden rollback, but the block list design proved impractical, as the public web's vastness limits the usefulness of a 1,000-domain limit.
Administrators faced the challenge of manually maintaining a long list of blocked domains, which could still be circumvented if Copilot accessed information from sites that were not included in the list. An allow list of approved sources would have provided a more effective solution, ensuring Copilot only accessed trusted sites.
Despite the rollback, the announcement drew criticism, with one commenter expressing dissatisfaction at the lack of an allow list option.
Written by urgent.news from The Register's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.
