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Microsoft will switch off Recall by default after security backlash

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Re: Microsoft will switch off Recall by default after security backlash

#171

Post by organsnyder »

Terretta wrote: post #157
organsnyder wrote: post #16

I still don't understand how this got this far. Enabling this in any corporate setting would be a compliance nightmare.

The corporate settings that care already do this to the employee screens ... Compliance doesn't say "company can't watch employee" -- in many cases it mandates surveillance. This just lets the employee leverage that too.

Depends on the compliance. If this monitoring sucks up any personal data (I don't mean employees' data here—personal data owned by anyone) there are erasure and data subject access requirements, for instance.

Re: Microsoft will switch off Recall by default after security backlash

#172

Post by fingerlocks »

dylan604 wrote: post #84
danielcampos93 wrote: post #36

This seems to be a feature that execs wanted, and people find creepy, and no one has the gumption to push back on the exec request.

How can you have the number of employees they do and not have a single non-sychophant employee?

Company-wide internal push to shoehorn AI into every product and service. All recognition and rewards are given to the sychophants, no matter how ludicrous their proposals. Even Principal and Senior developers are dragged into meetings with senior leadership to provide suggestions on how AI can be used in their microcosm. Whether it should be used is completely out of the question.

It’s a complete circus right now. Plenty of us just ignoring it and opting-out but it might reflect on our bonuses.

Re: Microsoft will switch off Recall by default after security backlash

#173

Post by vondur »

SavageBeast wrote: post #126

In all the MS Recall drama, I've yet to hear or read one single person utter something to the effect of "Wow - great!!! - I've been waiting for something like this for years! This will solve at least one of the major issues I face regularly!". In fact, it seems to me the only people that really want this feature are the ones trying to push it down everyones collective throat. Why is MS pushing something so hard when…

It could be handy if the data was stored locally and was managed by the users.

Re: Microsoft will switch off Recall by default after security backlash

#174

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0 »

sseagull wrote: post #125
A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm. I think I can respond here. No one is really saying this feature has no value. For a user, there is value to being able to get to a previous point in time. That feature, however, is clearly not very well designed and implemented if it took days for it to be cracked on the internet for everyone to see. If I could trust that it STAYS local, maybe I would be less paranoid. But this is MS we are talking about. Perso…

> clearly not very well designed and implemented if it took days for it to be cracked on the internet for everyone to see I really don't understand this line of thinking. What was cracked? That the database is readable, unencrypted? How could it be encrypted and usable at the same time? > If I could trust that it STAYS local This I agree with. While it's local now, not trusting MS is a valid belief, given their past…

I am admittedly mildly confused by this response. Do online portals typically use unencrypted passwords? Do they let data flow unecrypted? Are those portals somehow unusable?

Could you elaborate a little bit? It is possible I am misunderstanding your point.

Re: Microsoft will switch off Recall by default after security backlash

#175

Post by [deleted] »

SavageBeast wrote: post #126

In all the MS Recall drama, I've yet to hear or read one single person utter something to the effect of "Wow - great!!! - I've been waiting for something like this for years! This will solve at least one of the major issues I face regularly!". In fact, it seems to me the only people that really want this feature are the ones trying to push it down everyones collective throat. Why is MS pushing something so hard when…

[deleted]

Re: Microsoft will switch off Recall by default after security backlash

#176

Post by bee_rider »

malshe wrote: post #7

On LinkedIn someone in my network pointed out that, apart from the security and privacy disaster, the name Recall was a bad choice because of negative events like product recall.

It would actually be a fantastic name if this were a real concern. Imagine, a well-known feature to mask any searches of a product recall. The only problem with this theory is that computer QA is so incredibly shit that the concept of a recall more or less doesn’t exist in the first place.

Re: Microsoft will switch off Recall by default after security backlash

#177

Post by jug »

terrut wrote: post #35

I've been a Windows user since 3.1, but this was the straw for me. They have always provided an OS that just worked for my home needs, even with the creeping privacy invasions in the last update. I've been dual booting for a while and last weekend I went full Linux at home. My day job revolves around being truly good at solving Windows issues, and I will happily continue doing that, but at home I'm still just liking…

Yes, it's a really tough thing to manage this whole Recall thing philosophically and it makes me concerned about this OS. Even if MS is backtracking somewhat, they have shown their cards now and how they prioritize positioning themselves as an AI company above even rudimentary privacy. It's hard to just regain trust as if nothing happened.

I'm considering Linux with a Windows VM for Visual Studio. I've had my Linux detours in the past and it honestly works pretty well for me. I personally enjoy Fedora with Gnome which I think strikes a good balance between stability, security, and freshness. But if being stable and worryfree is of top importance (like where you are "unpaid tech support", haha), why not just go Debian. :)

Re: Microsoft will switch off Recall by default after security backlash

#178

Post by shermantanktop »

Analemma_ wrote: post #68
herf wrote: post #58

It's interesting to compare this to the Chrome/Safari/Edge browsing history, which is stored in an unencrypted SQLite database, and tracks what you do for the last 90 days. It's just a bit less visual, Incognito/Private modes work, and some users clear it more often. But a whole lot of the surveillance attacks people imagine about Recall apply just the same to the browser. I think it's the "little brother" casual att…

Yeah, I think this entire debate is uninformed hysteria and manufactured outrage. "If an attacker has administrator access, they can see everything you have done on your computer!". OK? That has literally always been the case? "Attacker is root" is game over and always has been. The original writeup from DoublePulsar tried to justify that Recall is somehow different from other such scenarios, but I found it totally u…

In a typical bigcorp environment, laptops are loaded with silently installed spyware. Certainly equivalent to taking a screenshot every second or an always-on keylogger.

The horse is out of the barn for many people during work hours. But in the OS and on by default is a different story!

Re: Microsoft will switch off Recall by default after security backlash

#179

Post by ragnese »

SavageBeast wrote: post #126

In all the MS Recall drama, I've yet to hear or read one single person utter something to the effect of "Wow - great!!! - I've been waiting for something like this for years! This will solve at least one of the major issues I face regularly!". In fact, it seems to me the only people that really want this feature are the ones trying to push it down everyones collective throat. Why is MS pushing something so hard when…

> In all the MS Recall drama, I've yet to hear or read one single person utter something to the effect of "Wow - great!!! - I've been waiting for something like this for years! This will solve at least one of the major issues I face regularly!".

There were definitely some comments in a previous HN post about it that attempted defend it and to paint everyone else as overreacting. Several of them even said that they thought it would be useful for something they might hypothetically like to remember or search for... I don't really remember, because the whole thing is crazy to me and I think it's crazy for any tech-savvy person to be running Windows in 2024.

> Why is MS pushing something so hard when nobody asked for it?

I assume this is a rhetorical question, but just in case it isn't: this is not a feature/product for Windows USERS. This is a feature to help train/test MS's AI stuff- YOU are the product, not the customer.

Re: Microsoft will switch off Recall by default after security backlash

#180

Post by ragnese »

nerdjon wrote: post #6

Will have to wait and see if the extra security measures actually improve anything or not. However regarding it being opt out… what would prevent a virus from just enabling it on a bunch of machines silently. Sure it would be caught but the damage done and most won’t be bothered to go in and disable it after. Or Microsoft just decides they need to really market the hell out of AI and it gets turned on my default anyw…

> Or Microsoft just decides they need to really market the hell out of AI and it gets turned on my default anyways.

This is what will happen. And when you turn it off again, it'll be turned back on by the next update. Enjoy.

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