Your Copilot Reads the Open Web. Microsoft Gave You a Line, Then Took It Back.

Microsoft 365 Copilot can pull live information from the web to make its answers current, and for most people that feature is on by default. In July 2026 Microsoft shipped a control that let administrators block specific web domains from grounding Copilot's answers, up to 1,000 of them (Microsoft 365 Message Center MC1411435). Within weeks Microsoft rolled it back. Tenants that had configured it lost it, and Microsoft says it is evaluating next steps. WHAT YOU HAVE TODAY: The Allow web search in Copilot policy: enabled, disabled, or disabled in Copilot Work mode only, assignable per user or group Web search query logging: administrators can search, audit and run eDiscovery on the exact web queries Copilot derived from a prompt (visible in Microsoft Purview) That pairing, a policy plus its evidence, is what a strong AI governance program looks like and what your next exam will ask you to show WHAT TO DO NOW: 1. Decide your institution's stance on Copilot web grounding: on, off, or off in Work mode, and which user groups get which setting 2. Confirm web search query logging is in place and name who reviews it 3. Write the stance into your AI policy so the next exam gets a policy AND a trail Exact reference: Microsoft 365 Message Center MC1411435 (Copilot web grounding domain exclusion, up to 1,000 domains, shipped mid-July 2026 and rolled back by Microsoft in August 2026; Microsoft Learn, Domain exclusion overview, page dated September 1, 2026) Full written breakdown: https://www.myabt.com/blog/copilot-we... Access Business Technologies manages Microsoft 365 tenants for more than 750 financial institutions, and we set up Copilot's web access examiner-ready from day one. Talk to an expert: https://www.myabt.com/talk-to-an-expert Free AI Readiness Scan: https://getmygrade.myabt.com #Shorts #Microsoft365 #Copilot #AIGovernance #CyberSecurity