Meta may crawl business customers' websites from 30 October
Meta has amended its business terms for Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp: from 30 October, Meta may use bots, spiders and web crawlers to collect content from domains linked to business customers. The first version also allowed that content to be used to 'train' Meta products. After criticism, that word has been removed and the content is now meant for Meta's advertising and business products, but according to lawyers Meta retains broad rights to your content.
What does this mean? If you use a Meta business account or Business Suite, read the new terms and check which parts of your website you want to shield from crawlers.
Copilot Business will switch to pay-per-use billing by default, with the Netherlands excluded for now
Microsoft is introducing 'Copilot Credits' for Copilot Business: heavy tasks, such as agents in Copilot Cowork, are billed outside the fixed licence via a linked Azure subscription. For new licences through CSP partners, pay-per-use starts immediately, with a limit of 4,000 credits per user per month at roughly one US cent per credit, so up to about $40 extra per employee. For countries including the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and France, that automatic activation has been postponed to 1 December 2026.
What does this mean? If you manage Microsoft 365 for your organisation, check the credit and budget settings now so you don't get an unexpected bill later.
DeepSeek releases V4.1-Flash-1017: faster and shorter answers
DeepSeek released a new version of its Flash model on 17 October. According to DeepSeek, V4.1-Flash-1017 scores better on benchmarks, completes tasks faster and gives shorter answers; it runs on the website, in the app and in the API under the existing name deepseek-flash, at the Flash rate. The Search and Fetch APIs are also now available to everyone, for $0.75 per 1,000 calls.
What does this mean? If you use deepseek-flash in the API, you automatically get the new model; for personal data, the cloud API with servers in China remains a GDPR risk.
Copilot Studio disappears from Teams, management moves to the web version
Microsoft is discontinuing the Copilot Studio app in Teams. Creating new agents from Teams is already no longer possible; from January 2027 you will no longer be able to edit existing agents there, and in February 2027 the app disappears altogether. Creating, editing, publishing and managing agents will then be done via the web version of Copilot Studio.
What does this mean? If your team builds or manages agents from Teams, plan the switch to the web version before January and update your internal guides.
