> Microsoft does this because they're security scanning / checking all links in every Outlook email for known phishing and malware attacks
The problem with that is that the logic is broken. Microsoft cannot possibly know all phishing sites, especially for smaller things. By obfuscating the link the user can no longer verify it by themselves without clicking, but Microsoft will say it's safe. So the user is left with a false sense of security and are worse off.
It only works for huge sites ( e.g. mytwitter.lol phishing for twitter and similar), but drastically lowers the chance of less high profile phishing being caught.
The problem with that is that the logic is broken. Microsoft cannot possibly know all phishing sites, especially for smaller things. By obfuscating the link the user can no longer verify it by themselves without clicking, but Microsoft will say it's safe. So the user is left with a false sense of security and are worse off.
It only works for huge sites ( e.g. mytwitter.lol phishing for twitter and similar), but drastically lowers the chance of less high profile phishing being caught.