The world is up-in-arms over Windows Recall, but why? It stems from Microsoft's seeming lack of care for Windows and its users.

It’s a nightmare scenario for Microsoft. The headlining feature of its new Copilot+ PC initiative, which is supposed to drive millions of PC sales over the next couple of years, is under significant fire for being what many say is a major breach of privacy and security on Windows. That feature in question is Windows Recall, a new AI tool designed to remember everything you do on Windows. The feature that we never asked and never wanted it.

Microsoft, has done a lot to degrade the Windows user experience over the last few years. Everything from obtrusive advertisements to full-screen popups, ignoring app defaults, forcing a Microsoft Account, and more have eroded the trust relationship between Windows users and Microsoft.

It’s no surprise that users are already assuming that Microsoft will eventually end up collecting that data and using it to shape advertisements for you. That really would be a huge invasion of privacy, and people fully expect Microsoft to do it, and it’s those bad Windows practices that have led people to this conclusion.

  • dmtalon@infosec.pubEnglish
    3317·
    6 months ago

    Ya, a PR nightmare for the next 15 minutes until the next unbelievable thing comes along and the ADD nature of people forgets windows is watching everything they do.

    • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.worldEnglish
      354·
      6 months ago

      That’s usually what I think too, but after watching how Twitter’s gone to shit since the two big user departures, I think this could legitimately affect Microsoft’s bottom line.

      • Voytrekk@lemmy.worldEnglish
        67·
        6 months ago

        That will rely on businesses moving away from Windows. That is where they make a ton of their money with Enterprise licenses and Office 365 subscriptions.

          • Starkstruck@lemmy.worldEnglish
            39·
            6 months ago

            They do care about keeping their company secrets and proprietary info though. Recall could make corporate espionage a cake walk.

          • ShepherdPie@midwest.socialEnglish
            12·
            6 months ago

            We handle a lot of IP on our Windows PCs so it’s debatable. However, in recent years, Microsoft has taken over most of our services with SSO, office 360, teams, etc so who knows.

          • n0pe@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            6 months ago

            If you look at sysadmin forums and groups it seems like most recommend disabling recall. Just about every enterprise will have confidentiality, security, or legislative requirements that recall is simply inconsistent with. It’s understandably been a hot topic.

        • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.worldEnglish
          181·
          6 months ago

          Yup. It’ll depend on how they handle Recall at the institutional level.

          It’s a given that hospitals and law firms will have to turn it off, as they’re required by law to honor privilege. We’ll see what choices they make.

          I find the nosedive in Twitter’s stock price these last few years encouraging. It seems for many there is a red line.

      • dmtalon@infosec.pubEnglish
        131·
        6 months ago

        I believe the biggest thing that will hurt MS is moving to subscription. The vast majority of users aren’t gonna wanna have a forever fee when they buy a laptop/PC

        • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.worldEnglish
          52·
          6 months ago

          That’s definitely going to be a problem for them, yes, because it’s also going to drive a ton of traffic to Linux and Linux is going to get even better.

    • dinckel@lemmy.worldEnglish
      14·
      6 months ago

      A lot of people would have huge bursts of negativity about this, but at the same time remain stubborn enough to not even consider evaluating alternatives. Microsoft and Apple spent decades making sure this would work

      • dmtalon@infosec.pubEnglish
        5·
        6 months ago

        For now at least, I block as much telemetry at the network level (DNS level) using pihole.

        Annoys my wife and kid at times. I try to explain why and what it means but convenience is king unfortunately.

        • dinckel@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5·
          6 months ago

          My mom only really browses the web, writes emails, and edits and occasional document. I’ve given her my old XPS 9350, with Fedora installed on it, and she’s been very happy with it. Keeps saying that everything just makes sense, and when she needs something, it’s easy to find. She’s far from tech savvy, but not completely clueless either

    • gusgalarnyk@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      6 months ago

      I’m swapping to Linux finally because of it. Few things are black and white but these things do have effects and some additional percentage of users are shifting over because of it.

    • assassinatedbyCIA@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      6 months ago

      I agree with your point, but I think it’s important not to forget just how shitty tech media is a holding these companies to account. Half the shit most mainstream tech journalist publish borders on hagiography for these companies.

    • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      21·
      6 months ago

      Ok fine, I’ll repeat it again:

      You’re right - many consumers will likely forget about it and just use it anyways. But enterprise customers absolutely, categorically will not. Even with their damage control, this is still going to hurt them a lot. Moreover, it’s going to hurt hardware sales from Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm, all of which have dumped MASSIVE amounts of capital into this tech. This is going to slow the rollout of NN-optimized chip tiles, and that is going to directly hit their bottom line. Microsoft hurt themselves AND the three most important hardware partners they have.