Build Edge for Business, Microsoft's year-old entry in the enterprise browser race, has received a handful of security and productivity upgrades that were announced on Tuesday at the technology giant's Build developer conference. While web browsers have long been subject to enterprise IT controls, both Google and Microsoft have decided to create standalone enterprise browsers – both based on the same Chromium engine, of course – presumably for the lock-in value of non-standard capabilities. Embrace, extend, and make it difficult to switch to a rival product seems to be the idea.
Google last month introduced 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, which debuted at Build last year, is also pitching data loss prevention, though without the extra fee. As described by Lindsay Kubasik, group product manager for Microsoft Edge, the latest iteration of Edge for Business can block screen captures – some of them at least – with screenshot prevention policies.
Funny that Microsoft is adding that just as it talks up Recall, a feature of Windows 11 that will take screenshots of your desktop every few seconds and store them to disk so they can be later looked up via an AI-powered search. "When these policies are set, screenshot attempts while using Edge on desktop will be prevented by showing a black screen instead of the protected content,".
