Live data from Hacker News

Microsoft's 'Recall' feature can't be uninstalled after all

mashable.com

91–100 of 249 posts

Re: Microsoft's 'Recall' feature can't be uninstalled after all

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

in all kindness, you're such an incredibly niche example of actual usage of this, that only proves it should've been opt-in instead of opt-out. I don't need to know what my tabs were 3 months ago. I don't need to treasure my precious history of browsing amazon for vacuum cleaners.

It is ~opt-out~. EDIT: I meant opt-in.

Surely all the computer illiterate people will disable it and not get spied on then, right, right??

Re: Microsoft's 'Recall' feature can't be uninstalled after all

#92
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So they say..

This is some serious tinfoil hattery. The data is not small. If it was being uploaded, you'd notice.

Pssst... You can extract metadata from data and then train on those "anonymized" metadata ;)

Re: Microsoft's 'Recall' feature can't be uninstalled after all

#93
post #38

I get that control of AI is playing for all the marbles, so I understand the desperate need to gather all the training data. Recall and its reason for being is an insult to my intelligence, and I will not be choosing Microsoft in the future. Windows now has negative value for me.

Isn't Recall on-device only?

Until it isn't. Why believe them?

Re: Microsoft's 'Recall' feature can't be uninstalled after all

#94
post #63

These are the system requirements for recall according to https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/retrace-your-ste... System requirements for Recall Your PC needs the following minimum system requirements for Recall: A Copilot+ PC 16 GB RAM 8 logical processors 256 GB storage capacity To enable Recall, you’ll need at least 50 GB of storage space free Saving screenshots automatically pauses once the device has les…

I was thinking you keep around a dedicated temp file you resize as required.

Re: Microsoft's 'Recall' feature can't be uninstalled after all

#95
Unfortunate. Luckily, Windows itself can be removed.

It's incredible how much Microsoft is resting on their laurels in terms of seeing Windows as insurmountable and so consumers must take whatever Microsoft decide to dish out. I would have been totally resigned to this fact a decade ago, but middle-school+ kids these days don't use Windows - they use Chromebooks. A huge minority of them use iPhones. Familiarity with Windows systems isn't a given anymore in the university courses my friends teach.

When these kids grow up and get to make procurement decisions, are they going to be as tolerant as today's staff of whatever overreach Microsoft is going to try with Windows in the future, or are they - and their peers - going to be much more accepting of non-Windows solutions? I think they'll be much more accepting, especially given how much is done in a browser today anyway.

MS will obviously survive, and Windows will of course remain dominant for the foreseeable future but I can't help but feel that if/when the tipping point for the end of Windows' dominance comes, it will all be seen retrospectively as so preventable, because it is.

Re: Microsoft's 'Recall' feature can't be uninstalled after all

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"National Defense runs almost entirely on Windows workstations, including "high-side" or classified networks." Windows is "military-grade". That's a laugh. In case of doubt I am referring to the US practice of marketing certain products as "military-grade". Perhaps to suggest something like, "If it is good enough for the military, then it is surely good enough for the civilian."

>Windows is "military-grade". That's a laugh. On the inside, the term of art for things like Windows is COTS - Commercial, Off-the-shelf.

In some fields, all outside software (including well-known vendors) is called SOUP - software of unknown provenance.

Re: Microsoft's 'Recall' feature can't be uninstalled after all

#98
post #73

They are probably thinking of training agents to do the back office work of their customers, no? Seems kinda obvious, regardless of the "this is local data only" talk.

I think you’re on to something. There is no way they would be pushing this so hard if they didn’t get something out of it, and collecting mass amounts of training data seems like a plausible explanation.

How much more is there left to collect? They already own Outlook, Edge, Bing, One Drive, Sharepoint, GitHub, LinkedIn, etc. Thanks to numerous dark patterns, Microsoft is already getting a ton of telemetry about everything users are doing. You have to fight the OS to not let OneDrive slurp up every byte of data.

The only avenue really free from their clutches is mobile, but this does nothing to alleviate that.

Re: Microsoft's 'Recall' feature can't be uninstalled after all

#99
Currently using Ubuntu as my main driver, replaced Windows.

I wouldn't really say the user experience is as good as Windows. Apps hang more often, steam freezes and restarts more. Games crash more often. All problems I wouldn't have on windows.

Even though Linux has gotten really far, I wouldn't be using it if windows wasn't so shit now.

Re: Microsoft's 'Recall' feature can't be uninstalled after all

#100

The Enterprise/IoT LTSC versions of Windows 10 with extended support up to 2032 are available with commercial Visual Studio licenses iirc. If you can't somehow get hold of an ISO from your office's IT admin you can always sail the high seas :) You can evaluate it here: https://info.microsoft.com/ww-landing-windows-10-enterprise....

Getting an unverifiable iso for Windows seems like a bigger security risk than Recall tbh. Does MS publish hashes for the LTSC versions to at least let you ensure what you have hasn't been altered?
Post reply on HN