Complaints have been appearing in forums that Microsoft's Copilot AI service has a life of its own: it is turned off, but still turns on. This is especially noticeable in Visual Studio Code, where the virtual assistant activates in workspaces without permission.
A developer who goes by the pseudonym rektbuildr says that he gave Copilot access only to certain VSCode windows to avoid sharing closed source code from some of his non-public repositories with the assistant. At one point, however, the AI spontaneously activated for all open windows, putting personal data, including keys and certificates at risk.
„Today, Copilot turned itself on in all open VSCode windows without my consent. Now you probably have copies of all key files, YAML secrets, certificates, etc. This is not normal“, writes rektbuildr.
Previously, a similar report of unauthorized activation of Copilot by another user appeared. He says that he disabled the service via GPO, but this did not help. Microsoft has not yet given an official comment, but it seems that it has assigned employees to investigate the situation.
Some experts note that Microsoft has changed the mechanism for launching Copilot in Windows 11. Now, to completely remove the assistant, you need to use PowerShell and prohibit reinstallation via AppLocker. Against this background, users again express concern about the launch of the scandalous Recall function, as well as Copilot Vision, where AI gets access to everything that happens on the computer.