In my opinion, this is not stupid. The way preferred by Microsoft is to mix the ads in with messages such that it's difficult to tell them apart.

If there's anything stupid here, it's Microsoft's decision that if you want the ads to be easily identifiable then you need to have them in your face, all the time.

If you don't like the way Outlook shows you ads then do not use Outlook.

Alternatively, vote for regulators who'll try and fix the problem.

Or pay to remove the ads, as they suggest in the link on that same prompt.

Do not use the _free_ Outlook (which is paid by ads)

Yes, damn governments always after our benevolent corporations

I say cut the red tape! So what if there are children in the mines? it just means more & cheaper asbestos for everyone.

Ah but haven't you heard that nobody would buy asbestos, let alone from a mine with children? Because the market is rational, ethical, and fully informed. That's in the very definition of free market pitalism.

Who's the government to say I can't sell sugar pills as the cure for cancer?!

Exactly. The fact is that the government is infallible, and any criticism means you think all corporations are benevolent.

Comcast SHOULD have a government-enforced monopoly over internet service! If you think that is overregulation: "Yes, damn governments always after our benevolent corporations"

I suspect it's because of American tech companies egregiously monitizing their customers

European internet companies don't use ads for revenues?

European internet companies exist within a jurisdiction that enforces a particular level of privacy protections the US does not guarantee in the slightest.

American companies operating in Europe have to follow the same laws as European companies.

Sure, and they're getting in trouble lately because they aren't.

Successive legal decisions are deeming "operate in Europe, but store data in the US" to be not protective enough of EU residents' data.

How many of the top 10 ad supported tech companies are based in the EU again?

That wasn't the question. if European companies can use ads why can't American companies? It's not like you suddenly stop needing to make money after you reach top 10 status.

If there are no major European Ad companies, then this is a false comparison - which is the point.

If the EU has no economic horse in the race, they are going to make rules that reflect that. If anything, even to ban the companies that other countries have that are valuable if they are uninterested or unable to compete.

The EU hates money.

Because, you know, the only way for businesses to make any money is to gather private data sell ads to the highest bidder. There's just no other way!

Ah yes. Blame the EU and not, you know, trillion-dollar multinational corporations that go out of their ways to subvert the law.

Both this comment and the GP comment seem exceedingly ideological to me. The actions of the EU on the internet are not categorically “stupid”, but their laws are also not always for someone's benefit (relative to organizations subverting a given law). It seems rather questionable to base an argument on something so broad and immutable rather than discussing the merits of this specific policy.

The merits of policy: do not trick users with dark patterns.