Microsoft’s controversial Windows Recall feature is coming back in October
Microsoft’s controversial Windows Recall feature is coming back in October
Microsoft plans to relaunch the AI feature Windows Recall in October;; this time to test builds first before the official launch.
If you thought that Microsoft was done with Recall after its catastrophic reveal as the main feature of Copilot+ PCs, you are mistaken.
Microsoft wants to bring it back this October 2024. Good news is that the company plans to introduce it in test builds of the Windows 11 operating system in October. In other words: do not expect the feature to hit stable Windows 11 PCs before 2025 at the earliest.
While Recall may have sounded great on paper and on work-related PCs, users and experts alike expressed concern. Users expressed fears that malware could steal Recall data to know exactly what they did in the past couple of months.
Others did not trust Microsoft to keep the data secure. We suggested to make Recall opt-in, instead of opt-out, to make sure that users knew what they were getting into when enabling it.
Microsoft pulled the Recall feature shortly after its announcement and published information about its future in June. There, Microsoft said that it would make Recall opt-in by default. It also wanted to improve security by enrolling in Windows Hello and other features.
Who thought they were abandoning it?
I doubt they secured it particularly well either, because the nature of proper security is building it from the ground up with security as a core principle, but it was always coming back.
They delayed because "oh shit, people noticed we didn't even bother with security theater" and to let the backlash die down. They still consider it a major selling point.
They never said they were doing away with it. It's a feature literally no one asked for, it's insecure, it's invasive, a privacy nightmare any way you look at it.
And people who willingly use it will deserve all the shit that it is. And meanwhile, I'll be enjoying my privacy-respecting Linux operating system.
"has enough time passed that we won't get bad press for this?"
So imagine you're on PornHub and then out of nowhere, Clippy shows up and says "hmmm looks like you need some help pleasuring yourself", then starts flicking through similar nude pictures and videos to what you've been looking at before. The idle animation of the AI assistant even changes to Clippy morphing into the shape of a penis and shagging a rolled up piece of lined paper is if it were a fleshlight. You can't tell if Microsoft are mocking you for being a coomer, nor can you tell whether to find Clippy's sexual deviancy funny or creepy.
Somehow that hypothetical dystopia of Clippy watching you masturbate is only slightly worse than what Microsoft plan to do with Recall. If the mere thought of a machine learning AI taking screenshots of your desktop every few seconds and learning from your computer usage habits isn't absolutely fucking terrifying... Then imagine that these are likely being uploaded to a server for the perusal of advertisers, intelligence agencies and any hackers skilled enough to break into Microsoft's servers.
Even if it was stored locally, all it takes is one dodgy web link for you to inadvertently send all your Recall data to a hacker and have it ransomed.
MS: Here's a cool new feature!
Users: That is spyware bullshit, fuck off!
MS: But muh ecosystem!
Users: Nobody fucking wants any of that. Now STFU and run my games, grandpa.
MS: sniffs This isn't over, you little shits.Their feature may come back to their OS but their OS isn’t coming back to my hardware.
The tendency of the rate of profit to fall is here again. They really do need to squeeze those dollars out
Another day I'm thankful I don't work for a company that uses microshit anymore
I use Arch Linux... btw
Seriously, the alternatives are there... It's time to take the leap and never look back.
I can see the use case, and that some people might find this useful (not to mention many agencies and ad companies). But enough was enough, for me at least. Linux Mint rocks. Can't see myself going back to Windows.
To the title of this article /post, all I can say is Duh.
It is funny how they think this product useful to so many people. I believe they only do it because they have to use AI in any way but could not come up with something better.
So based on the requirements, it sounds like a lot of PCs just can't run recall anyways?
The writing is on the wall, they are not giving up on that potential cash cow. I won't use it, hell I don't use windows, but there are normal computer users that will have it thrust upon on them and won't know how to really turn it off.
