Peterborough Linux User Group (Canada) Forum

General (non-Linux) => General Discussion => Topic started by: ssfc72 on January 30, 2021, 09:32:59 AM

Title: Hotmail (Outlook) email, reading my email/creating a Calendar entry, Not happy.
Post by: ssfc72 on January 30, 2021, 09:32:59 AM
So just lately, it appears Microsoft Outlook is now reading my emails and if it sees  something that looks like an "event", it auyomatically places an entry in the Outlook Calendar. :-(
I never use the Outlook Calendar and I am not happy that Outlook is reading my email and automatically making these Calendar entries.

My Hotmail email address is my main email address, that I use, but I will now be starting a new email address with Proton email, and making this my main address, to use.
Title: Re: Hotmail (Outlook) email, reading my email/creating a Calendar entry, Not happy.
Post by: Jason on January 31, 2021, 07:47:24 AM
Is it that your email is being scanned that bothers you or that it's creating automatic calendar entries? Gmail offers to do this for me but it doesn't automatically do it. There might be a way to turn this off.

Note that if you want to use a secure service like Protonmail that protects your privacy you might consider Tutanota (https://tutanota.com/). The interface isn't as cool but Protonmail is far more limited in their free accounts which include only 150 messages/day and 500 MB of storage. Tutanota gives you 1 GB of storage with a free account with no limits on sending messages. Both amounts of storage would likely last you a long time but it really depends on how much email you send and how often you use attachments. I've had my Gmail account for just over 13 years and I've used 3.41 GB for storing 51,373 messages. I used to keep everything once but now I delete emails like newsletter subscriptions and the like. So you might get by with 500 MB for 6 years or so or longer if you're not like me with email. Then you can start deleting messages or upgrade to a premium account - 4 euros/month for Protonmail or 1.20 euros/month for Tutanota (or 12 euros/year). I think a euro is around $2 CAD right now. Tutanota has a calendar in it, too, but I stopped using it after they were DDOS'd a couple of times and I couldn't access it.

It's nice that you care about privacy. I wish somebody else did. I've tried without success for years to get members to use encryption or secure email services but nobody cares. So I've really given up on it. But if you get a Tutanota account, at least we can talk securely over the Intertubes.
Title: Re: Hotmail (Outlook) email, reading my email/creating a Calendar entry, Not happy.
Post by: gmiller1977 on January 31, 2021, 09:57:17 AM
We've had a few clients on the Office 365 / EO platform complain about this.

Try doing this in your Outlook.com email to turn it off:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/automatically-add-events-from-your-email-to-your-calendar-32e5cf0c-3e65-4870-9ff9-df3683d3fc97
Title: Re: Hotmail (Outlook) email, reading my email/creating a Calendar entry, Not happy.
Post by: Jason on January 31, 2021, 02:01:39 PM
After rereading Bill's initial post I think he's more concerned that it's scanning his email to do this but maybe I'm wrong. I assume that most free email providers, with the exception of privacy-focused email companies, are scanning your email in order to serve you relevant ads anyway. That's how they make their moola. But I have to say that'd be an annoying "feature". Even Gmail doesn't do that.
Title: Re: Hotmail (Outlook) email, reading my email/creating a Calendar entry, Not happy.
Post by: ssfc72 on January 31, 2021, 07:34:02 PM

Thanks for the info Glen.  I went to the Outlook webpage and logged into my email account and tried to find the settings you pointed to.  I am not sure if that will fix the issue of Microsoft automatically populating the Calendar.  I should find out in about a weeks time, from now.


Quote from: gmiller1977 on January 31, 2021, 09:57:17 AM
We've had a few clients on the Office 365 / EO platform complain about this.

Try doing this in your Outlook.com email to turn it off:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/automatically-add-events-from-your-email-to-your-calendar-32e5cf0c-3e65-4870-9ff9-df3683d3fc97
Title: Re: Hotmail (Outlook) email, reading my email/creating a Calendar entry, Not happy.
Post by: Jason on February 01, 2021, 10:42:49 AM
If you want I can send you an email with a time and date for a fabricated event and you can see if it does it, Bill.
Title: Re: Hotmail (Outlook) email, reading my email/creating a Calendar entry, Not happy.
Post by: ssfc72 on February 02, 2021, 12:20:53 AM
Thanks Jason.  Good idea.  I can just send a test email to myself, from another one of my email addresses.  :-)
Title: Re: Hotmail (Outlook) email, reading my email/creating a Calendar entry, Not happy.
Post by: Jason on February 02, 2021, 06:36:47 PM
Quote from: ssfc72 on February 02, 2021, 12:20:53 AM
Thanks Jason.  Good idea.  I can just send a test email to myself, from another one of my email addresses.  :-)

Sounds good. Let me know (via a private message) if you want one from me, too.