Microsoft’s Windows Recall feature is attracting controversy before even venturing out of preview.
Microsoft said in its FAQs that its snapshotting feature will vacuum up sensitive information: “Recall does not perform content moderation. It will not hide information such as passwords or financial account numbers. That data may be in snapshots stored on your device, especially when sites do not follow standard internet protocols like cloaking password entry.”
Mozilla’s Chief Product Officer Steve Teixeira told The Register: "Mozilla is concerned about Windows Recall. From a browser perspective, some data should be saved, and some shouldn’t.
Jake Moore, Global Cybersecurity Advisor at ESET, noted that while the feature is not on by default, its use “opens up another avenue for criminals to attack.”
Moore warned that “users should be mindful of allowing any content to be analysed by AI algorithms for a better experience.”
Cybersecurity expert Kevin Beaumont was scathing in his assessment of the technology, writing: “In essence, a keylogger is being baked into Windows as a feature.”
AI expert Gary Marcus was blunter: “F^ck that. I don’t want my computer to spy on everything I ever do.”
Even if we believe them and all the data stays local to your machine, what’s to stop your average bit of malware accessing it?
So now not only is any data compromised going forward, but all your data going back as well.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The user can then scroll through the archive of snapshots to find what were doing some time back, or query an AI system to recall past screenshots by text.
The Windows 11 feature is supposed to eventually expand to allow users to pull up anything that happened recently on their Copilot+ PC and interact with or use it again, as the system logs all app activity, communications, and so on, as well as by-the-second screenshots, to local storage for search and retrieval.
The IT giant also says that for the relatively small number of users running its Edge browser – with a market share of just under 13 percent, according to Statcounter – InPrivate sessions won’t be snapped, nor will DRM content.
Other Chromium-based browsers can filter out private browsing activity but lose the ability to block sensitive websites (such as financial sites) from Recall.
Microsoft did not engage our cooperation on Recall, but we would have loved for that to be the case, which would have enabled us to partner on giving users true agency over their privacy, regardless of the browser they choose."
Industry must consider data protection from the outset and rigorously assess and mitigate risks to people’s rights and freedoms before bringing products to market.
The original article contains 1,057 words, the summary contains 209 words. Saved 80%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Microsoft’s bread and butter has been selling and servicing to businesses.
So with that in mind, the hell are they thinking? Windows 10 end of life guarantees that businesses specifically will have to switch. Then the next option in line is one that will by default vacuum up all your proprietary information to feed into an AI, effectively “copyright laundering” it?.
Even if there’s ways to deactivate the feature, the non-tech savvy managers will just go off of the headlines and the tech savvy ones will recognize the security risk. And government/healthcare computer might just fork Linux into a non-open source version.
Ironically it feels like they’re focusing too much on consumers (on extorting them) and shooting themselves in the foot for their business clientele.
Ironically it feels like they’re focusing too much on consumers (on extorting them) and shooting themselves in the foot for their business clientele.
It’s like they saw all the shittiest things about apple products and said “game on motherfuckers!”
imagine how many people are going to get doxxed by this feature.
literally every cybersecurity expert is saying this would be a bad idea that could be used maliciously by anyone. I really hope the executives listen to them.
yeah, sure, it’s supposedly encrypted and supposedly stored locally exclusively and supposedly not turned on by default, but even if that does turn out to be true, scammers can use it with remote desktop to snoop, anyone who plants a RAT on your system could look through that shit too.
“I really hope the executives listen to them.”
Oh man. Needed a good laugh tonight. Thanks champ.
Total Recall? Get your ass to Linux!
Honestly if you do truly value having control over your privacy take this advice to heart. There are so many good Linux options now that are even easier than Windows to install. All it takes is a few clicks. You can even choose which UI you prefer in many cases. All those previous barriers to entry no longer exist.
I’ve tried to get into linux 4 different times now. Over the coarst of 15 years.
I have no idea what I’m doing.
Try BazziteOS
It’s meant for gaming, but I find it’s so feature complete that’s it’s great for non-gaming purposes.
Somehow it even works better on my monitor than Windows, since I can actually control my brightness from an applet rather than having to use my monitor buttons.
Not OP, but I feel like every time I come across a thread like this, someone is recommending a different version of Linux. It makes it really difficult to decide, and I can’t exactly just “try out” Linux on my computer the same way I could try out other programs.
Yes, I could install it on a thumb drive, but that’s not persistent, so I couldn’t try it out for more than a few hours. Takes longer than that to decide to completely switch OSes.
You can make a persistent install on a thumb drive actually. Has been possible for about a decade I think. There’s even a program now called Ventoy that lets you make multiple persistent installs of different Linux distros on a single thumb drive even.
Hopefully this will get more people into looking at Linux as their OS.
Seems like all hospitals and medical providers would need to avoid the OS in order to remain in compliance with HIPAA.
I give it two weeks, tops.
Yup, I’m setting up a dual boot when my thumb-drive arrives.
Actually really excited to get back to computing the way it was in 2010. :)
Actually really enjoying OpenSUSE Tumbleweed… first time on a rolling release distro and so far no major complaints.
Probably would have started with Arch (btw) but I felt a little daunted by the install process. In contrast with my ~2010 attempt, all my data is on a separate drive with automatic backups to NAS — so when I upgrade to an NVMe drive I’m going to give it a whirl.
Nice!
I just want something that’s similar to Windows, regularly updated, easy to use, and comes with proton already installed.
2010 sounds so fantastical, and such a far away time of mystery in the future. We’ll have flying cars, and robot monkey maids, and brain chips that can drive cars, and…it was 14 years ago??? It’s currently 2024? Well that sounds like a depressing year!
Yup, I couldn’t have imagined the extent of the enshittification.
I’m glad I can turn back the clock a little on my PC at least.
