Build Edge for Business, Microsoft’s year-old entry into the enterprise browser race, has received a handful of security and productivity upgrades announced Tuesday at the tech giant’s Build developer conference.
Although web browsers have long been under the control of corporate IT departments, both Google and Microsoft have decided to develop standalone enterprise browsers – both based on the same Chromium engine, of course – presumably to capture the value of non-standard features . The idea seems to be to accept a competing product, expand it and make it difficult to switch to a competing product.
Google last month launched Chrome Enterprise Premium, which sells AI-powered data loss prevention controls for $6 per user per month and complements its free Chrome Enterprise Core browser.
Edge for Business, introduced at Build last year, also offers data loss prevention, but at no additional charge.
As Lindsay Kubasik, Group Product Manager for Microsoft Edge, describes, the latest version of Edge for Business can block screen captures – at least some of them – using screenshot prevention policies.
Funny that Microsoft is adding this just as it is touting Recall, a Windows 11 feature that takes screenshots of your desktop every few seconds and saves them to your hard drive for later retrieval via AI-powered search.
“With these policies set, screenshot attempts will be prevented when using Edge on the desktop by displaying a black screen instead of the protected content,” Kubasik explains. “This protection also applies to Copilot in the Edge sidebar, preventing prompts and responses in Copilot from being screenshotted.”
Similar policies can be applied to Microsoft 365, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps (MDA), Microsoft Intune Mobile Application Management (MAM), and Microsoft Purview.
It goes without saying that a cell phone with a camera negates any protection in the browser. But we’ll say it anyway – this doesn’t prevent screenshots with a smartphone. However, the existence of narrowly applicable screenshot protection can remind computer users that they are on a managed computer as a form of psychological deterrence against data leaks. This feature at least gives IT managers something to point to as an example of the security posture.
In typical Microsoft fashion, this feature is currently unavailable. It is promised “in the coming months.”
Edge for Business has also been taught to respect usage rights restrictions for Word, Excel and PowerPoint files that are classified as “sensitive.” Such settings, available in desktop apps, can now be extended to Edge for Business to deny document screenshots and keep Copilot away from sensitive files.
This feature is not yet available but is expected “in the coming weeks.”
The Microsoft Edge management service has been further developed. It can identify outdated browser instances and perform updates or send an update recommendation. The admin tool can also enable enhanced security mode, which, among other things, disables just-in-time compilation of JavaScript. Or rather: “In the coming weeks” it will be able to do so.
Additionally, the Edge Management Service now provides a configuration file setting that allows you to allow or disallow Copilot from accessing web content, making text predictions, or offering Find on Page suggestions.
Edge already offers support for unmanaged devices through mobile application management, allowing organizations to provide app protection and remotely wipe data. Now Edge for Business is gaining support for session policies through Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps. This gives administrators access to block websites, the ability to monitor uploads and downloads, and gain control over clipboard actions and printing on unmanaged devices. Support for such policies is available to Edge users in preview when they sign in with their Entra ID.
Microsoft’s browser will also offer real-time video translation on a limited number of websites: YouTube, Reuters, CNBC News, Bloomberg, Money Control (India), LinkedIn and Coursera, with more planned. This can be in the form of subtitles or audio translation.
However, audio options are currently limited: Spanish and Korean can be translated into English; and English audio files can be converted to Hindi, German, Italian, Spanish, and Russian. This real-time translation feature appears to be available for Edge as a whole, not just Edge for Business.
Finally, Edge for Business introduced the ability to add organizational branding through the Edge management service. Basically, IT managers can overlay their company name and logo over the Edge logo, which might be significant to some. So when users see their employer Contoso’s popular logo on the Edge logo in the taskbar, they say, “Of course it’s Contoso that doesn’t trust me enough to allow screenshots.” ®