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Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders

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Re: Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders

#61

Post by renegade-otter »

dobong wrote: post #41

I don't want this feature. I have LaTeX documents on my computer containing my personal thoughts. Some of them I want to keep to myself. And some of them contain my own ideas that I find embarrassing. I don't want to hand those documents over to Microsoft servers, nor do I want them used for AI training. I want them to know that these deeply personal thoughts are mine.

Microsoft once pushed an update that started uploading my data to OneDrive. I had no idea until I was kindly informed that my cloud storage was out of space.

At this point I would ALWAYS assume that anything I do on a Windows system is not completely private, and the only true way to make a PC secure from Microsoft is to air-gap it.

Also, this is completely ridiculous.

Re: Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders

#62

Post by renegade-otter »

mlnj wrote: post #3

I've been aggressively firewalling Windows machine for ages now. Something like https://www.binisoft.org/wfc.php makes it easy to deal with. Any executable like Copilot will never get access to the internet.

If I have to treat an operating system like a hostile actor, I am just not going to use it for anything serious. After my current Alienware system depreciates, I will be looking elsewhere, such as Valve.

Re: Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders

#63

Post by krackers »

the_snooze wrote: post #39

>For example, if you ask ChatGPT’s Agent to book a travel, it’ll open Chromium on Linux in an Azure container, search the query, visit different websites, navigate each page and book a flight ticket using your saved credentials. An AI Agent tries to mimic a human, and it can perform tasks on your behalf while you sit back and relax. Big tech has repeatedly shown that they are not good stewards of end users' privacy a…

I think it's hilariously tone deaf that travel booking and shopping are the two examples of "agentic" AI that keep popping up.

Re: Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders

#65

Post by contextfree »

knowitnone3 wrote: post #54
xp84 wrote: post #45

> Instead of letting an agent act directly as you, Windows spins up this extra workspace, gives it limited access (like specific folders such as Documents or Desktop), and keeps its actions isolated and auditable. > Each agent can have its own workspace and access rules, so what one agent can see or do doesn’t automatically apply to others, and you stay in control of what they’re allowed to touch. This actually sound…

Are you kidding? This is pure theft. If I got into your computer and accessed your Documents and Desktop, I'd be in jail but its OK when Microsoft does it.

Most apps on Windows can already access those folders though, except for UWP/AppContainer apps (which require particular capabilities to access them). I think the same is generally still true of the equivalents on most Linux distributions despite that things like SELinux exist.

Re: Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders

#67

Post by beeflet »

tapper wrote: post #2

I can't tell you how mutch I don't want this! I know there will be some smart arse out there saying "Just install Linux" Pleas don't I have to use a screenreader called NVDA to read the screen to me as I am blind. There is a screen reader in Linux but it just is not that good. If it was better then I would think about it. I have tried!

Maybe you could try to figure out linux TUI/CLI stuff with a braille terminal? May not help with some websites.

NVDA looks like it is open source, it shouldn't be too hard to port.

Re: Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders

#68

Post by binsquare »

the_snooze wrote: post #39

>For example, if you ask ChatGPT’s Agent to book a travel, it’ll open Chromium on Linux in an Azure container, search the query, visit different websites, navigate each page and book a flight ticket using your saved credentials. An AI Agent tries to mimic a human, and it can perform tasks on your behalf while you sit back and relax. Big tech has repeatedly shown that they are not good stewards of end users' privacy a…

I think in this case, Microsoft has shown they don't respect the user when they force shutdown for system updates. This has happened during my time working retail and the mom and pops are helpless when this happens.

I would never trust Microsoft to bake ai agents in..

Re: Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders

#69

Post by giancarlostoro »

Every day HN just makes me glad I've completely abandoned Windows outside of employers who make me use it for work. I can honestly do all the same work I do at any Software Engineering job from Linux or Mac, neither option phases me.
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