Is there a way to block all ai notetaker apps and websites across Windows and Mac?Solved

Hi @otis,

Currently, there is no universal “AI Notetaker” category toggle that will automatically detect and block all of these tools at the device level. You will need to tackle this using a two-pronged approach, targeting the specific services your users are trying to access.

1. Blocking the Web Portals

   You will use Web Content Filtering to block access to the browser-based notetakers.

   • For Windows: Go to Policies > Create a fully custom policy > Windows > Security > Web Content Filtering. Select Blocklist and choose your target browsers (Edge, Chrome, Firefox). The Windows filter requires strict matches, so you must add the exact URL variations (e.g., https://otter.ai and https://www.otter.ai)..
   • For macOS: Go to Policies > Create a fully custom policy > macOS > Web Content Filtering > Blocklist/Allowlist. Set the filter type to Blocklist Web URLs and add the exact portal domains. This restricts access through Safari, and users will see an organizational block screen if they try to navigate there.
2. Blocking the Desktop Apps

   Web Content Filtering only stops browser traffic; it does not stop a standalone desktop app from running. To block the installed versions, you must identify the exact application identifiers or executable names for these tools and add them to the blocklist section of the Blocklist/Allowlist policy for Windows and macOS.

Please let me know if you need any assistance configuring these blocklists or if you have any other questions.

Best regards,
Eden Pierce
Hexnode UEM

That makes sense. I figured web filtering wouldn’t automatically kill a standalone background app, but I was hoping there was a master category I could just enable. 

So, it sounds like the practical approach here is for our team to maintain an active, running list of known AI notetaker domains and app identifiers, and just keep adding them to our blocklist policies as we discover them in our environment. 

You have the exact right approach. Maintaining those separate, specific blocklists, one for the exact web URLs and one for the installed application identifiers, is the recommended best practice for this scenario. 

Best regards, 
Eden Pierce 
Hexnode UEM