Microsoft to delay release of Recall AI feature on security concerns

What a dumb feature. They had to get all that backlash to understand why everyone wouldn't want it. Is someone at Microsoft taking crazy pills to think consumers would be into that?

They pulled the exact same shit 11 years ago when they launched the Xbox One as a "home media center" instead of a gaming console and it came with mandatory always-on internet connection, disc games DRM tied to a single console unable to lend them to a friend, and with Kinect camera, and just like this time, it took community backlash to get them to roll back on this shit while Sony was having the time of their lives seeing how the succes of the PS4 was already in the bag from the start before they evens started.

What is wrong with them? Does Microsoft think consumers are stupid masochists who enjoy being shit on by megacorporations while paying for the privilege? Does Nadella not look into the stupid decisions his execs are making and make necessary organizational adjustments to prevent stuff like this?

People shit on Steve Balmer but I don't remember Microsoft's products having that level of anti-consumer disrespect during his tenure. Sure Microsoft Zune and Window Phone 7-10 eventually flopped, by not because they had anti-consumer features but because they were too late and not very popular. And the Xbox 360, despite the Red ring of death was still smash hit. Now, Microsoft is an even richer company that during Balmer's tenure but it's products seem way more anti-consumer.

Edit: sorry for the overuse of the word shit, I'm just angry

In summary: the only customers that matter --corporations paying site licenses-- declared this to be an unacceptable business risk.

Anyone who is still using windows in 2024 and isnt a multinational business or llc gets what they deserve.

My takeaway is that Microsoft has been trying to boil the frog, but slipped and turned the temperature up too quickly. They're retreating for now, but make no mistake that Recall will slowly trickle back into Windows under another name. Every major power broker wants something like Recall to become the norm - bosses to spy on their employees, governments to spy on their citizens/enemies, and tech CEO's to collect training data for AI and target more ads at end users.

They keep confusing regular old customers with the stupid masochist enterprise customers they also sell to, forgetting that the experience of spending your own money on a poop sandwich is something entirely else than spending your bosses' money on one.

There's a much more mundane read:

They invested a bunch of effort into a product the market loudly rejected.

They're now withdrawing the product while they figure out what they can salvage from the effort.

Key stakeholders may have a few ideas about how to proceed (ranging from "try again later" through "repurpose it" to "forget it"), but enterprises of Microsoft size make decisions very slowly so of course it's vague about what's next. Collectively, they almost certainly don't know!