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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

#461

Post by justinclift »

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…

> It's interesting to compare this to the Chrome/Safari/Edge browsing history, which is stored in an unencrypted SQLite database ...

Recall seems to be storing its info locally in an unencrypted SQLite database as well.

At least, that's according to the instructions here on how to access and view the contents:

https://www.heise.de/en/news/First-experiences-with-Recall-9...

From the submitted article, it seems like Microsoft will change/secure the access (and maybe storage) in some way, though there's no details on the specifics.

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

#462

Post by WhackyIdeas »

jasonfarnon wrote: post #425
pydry wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm perplexed that anybody thinks Microsoft were being dumb. They know exactly what they are doing and putting the pieces in place to violate users' security is the point. Theyre just boiling the frog slowly. It'll be turned on by default soon enough and then theyll start looking for excuses to upload it. This can be used to make them a shedload of money one day.

I agree, these decisions in 2024 are thoroughly vetted. I think the only thing these companies don't know is when the news cycle will pick up on something they're doing and they get blowback, and they'll have to pretend this was some little oversight.

Honestly, it has the smell of an NSA pressure campaign which would also rake in the money like nobodies business.. an easy choice for Microsoft. They are as guilty as sin for turning everything they create into a surveillance product.

I was just remembering today what they did to the security/encryption as soon as they bought over Skype… they removed it. And who would that benefit - the spies.

No-one cared about that. No-one ever cares. Except for this rare occasion - tides are turning and people are starting to care a tad more.

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

#463

Post by sho_hn »

torstenvl wrote: post #420
sho_hn wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The browser history may not, the cache and other local storage may well. The take-away is simple though: Modern desktop operating systems need a security model where individual applications are sand-boxed and protected from each other. Legacy systems have security models that protect users from each other, but this isn't the personal computing world we live in anymore.

Only if major browsers are disregarding HTTP cache headers, which is a pretty major allegation. Do you have any evidence to support that?

You're assuming that all sensitive information is served with sensible cache policies. There's a lot more websites than browsers.

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

#464

Post by anakaine »

elevatedastalt wrote: post #358
haswell wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think the thought is proportional to the amount of thought a non-tech customer will put into it. Part of me wonders if this is the consequence of how accessible tech has become, and the prevalence of increasingly non-technical product managers. I'm a former PM, and I'm not here to denigrate the PM role, but the fact that a product like Recall got shipped says a lot about the makeup of the product org that shipped…

It's not surprising once you consider that all the big tech firms hire MBAs for their PM roles. The ideal PM profile for these companies is someone with consulting experience who just finished an MBA.

As an engineer with an MBA and in an executive level twchnokogy role, an MBA is part of what I would consider a good background. That said, OP was talking about non-technical PMs. That is the issue. You can teach a tech person to understand business, vision, strategy, finance, etc. You cannot teach very well the business person who has all that the intricacies of technology.

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

#465

Post by LoganDark »

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…

I hate that most browsers do not let you set them to keep history for longer than 90 days.

I want to be able to find things I've seen before. Recall would've been great if using it didn't require me to update to a version of Windows that contains "Copilot".

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

#466

Post by bitwize »

ragnese wrote: post #164
GordonS wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your browsing history is unlikely to contain personal information, secrets, porn images etc. And if you use Chrome, they get your full browsing history by default. I get your point, but Microsoft's Recall can capture anything onscreen - emails, personal info, porn, passwords and the like. And it feels, bizarrely for 2024, that little thought has gone into privacy or security.

> And it feels, bizarrely for 2024, that little thought has gone into privacy or security. No, no. They thought about the privacy and security aspect. They decided that it's better for their bottom line if Windows users don't have privacy from the mother ship. Really, they already decided that way back when Windows Vista first came out and periodically asked Microsoft HQ if you should continue being allowed to use yo…

That was XP, and that was the beginning of my separation from Microsoft stuff in earnest. The Windows XP background and UI is a source of nostalgia for millennials just like Windows 3.x, old-school Mac, or Amiga would be for people my age... but I feel no nostalgia at all for it because I let that generation of Windows, and most subsequent ones, simply pass me by, fortune having smiled upon me and enabled me to work in Linux almost exclusively since around that time.

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

#467

Post by kjellsbells »

Heres something I just don't get. Microsoft just got their ass handed to them by the US Government because os (lapses in) security. Extremely more than coincidentally, Satya Nadella told the entire Microsoft org that if anyone had to choose between features and security, to choose security. I'm hearing from Microsoft people that all product roadmaps are deferred for a few months while security features are addressed. Their whole corporate spiel is "Microsoft runs on trust" (see the famous standards of business training on youtube).

And then someone goes and invents Recall. This is not the work of a lone engineer and a principal PM fishing for Impact or whatever they call success at Microsoft. This had to have gone through multiple levels of review. Microsoft PMs, CVPs, their corpo legal people, marketing approval. And yet no one stopped to say, "wait, this could blow up in our faces"?

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

#469

Post by lucianbr »

kjellsbells wrote: post #467

Heres something I just don't get. Microsoft just got their ass handed to them by the US Government because os (lapses in) security. Extremely more than coincidentally, Satya Nadella told the entire Microsoft org that if anyone had to choose between features and security, to choose security. I'm hearing from Microsoft people that all product roadmaps are deferred for a few months while security features are addressed.…

What's so hard to get? Security and trust are lip service. Corporations lie to make a buck. How is it not obvious?

Actions speak louder than words.

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

#470

Post by beezlewax »

anakaine wrote: post #464
elevatedastalt wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not surprising once you consider that all the big tech firms hire MBAs for their PM roles. The ideal PM profile for these companies is someone with consulting experience who just finished an MBA.

As an engineer with an MBA and in an executive level twchnokogy role, an MBA is part of what I would consider a good background. That said, OP was talking about non-technical PMs. That is the issue. You can teach a tech person to understand business, vision, strategy, finance, etc. You cannot teach very well the business person who has all that the intricacies of technology.

That's not really a fact though is it?
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