News Microsoft backtracks on new Recall feature — enhancing Recall's security and making it an opt-in decision

[CmdrShepard]

The concept is perfectly fine.

No, not really.

The "concept" would have been fine if it was:

1. Possible to install on demand (like other FoD in Windows so it can't be enabled unless explicitly installed)
2. Using encryption for database and images by default
3. Using file permissions so that other users can't see it by default

As it was initially, it was an alpha software (most likely some project manager's pet project) disguised as a feature.

"Hey can you find that power point I was working on 6 months ago with nike logo?"

"I am sorry Dave, I can't do that. You didn't create a backup and your only copy was deleted when you allowed your OneDrive subscription to expire."

Perfect logical extension of computing usage to want it to remember so we don't have to.

Be careful what you wish for because computers remember things indiscriminately. It will also remember whatever next thing government declares illegal which you did long time ago and it won't have any compunction telling them about it when asked.

The implementation here is the issue.

No, the issue is that humans are turning into idiots. Literally. They are outsourcing their basic faculties for no good reason other than "so I don't have to do it".

And every bit of this surveillance tech has existed in windows for decades. Corps use it all the time.

Here in EU it is against the law for administrators to shadow users using RDP session and watch their desktops while they work unless there is a justified need (which involves suspcion and court orders).

Furthermore, on someone else's PC you already have lower expectation of privacy than on a PC you own.

The only new part is forcing it to home users and using AI to do they image analysis.

What you are saying boils down to "They were always capable of raping you -- you might as well try to relax and enjoy it now that they are forcing themselves on you."

Stop being an apologist for the abusers.

 

[palladin9479]

Yeah ... they are totally going to have it "turned off", like like how Alexa and Google are not listening to everything you say around them and just not telling you about it.

Somewhere on an EULA or text box there is going to be fine print saying that you agree to Microsoft using your activity information and also providing that information to third parties as determined by Microsoft. You will click "OK", which will immediately enable this feature. It will then start sending everything is grabs to mothership Microsoft, who will then provided it to every government it has an anti-terrorism intelligence sharing agreement with. Those governments will then store it in a database for a warrantless search at some future date.

 

[Giroro]

"opt-in" isn't good enough.
Microsoft has shown that they can and will mess around with people's privacy settings, including changing defaults and forcing people to opt-in to services, with no notice.
They'll wait until the heat is off, then they'll turn it on. Then, later, they'll remove the switch to turn it off. Then they'll start breaking all the registry edits and workarounds people come up with to turn it off
That's not hyperbolic, they do it all the time. It's standard operating procedure. They pointlessly change stuff around just to break people's settings literally every update.

 

[ThomasKinsley]

I'll add another point to this discussion. Has anyone here tried O&O ShutUp10++? It's a third party app for Windows 10 and 11 that tries to simplify Windows privacy settings by offering toggles for dozens of potentially unwanted features, including telemetry and updates. I've tinkered with it, and what struck me was how many settings were reverted after restarting the machine or updating it. This is on a Windows 10 box. Settings are constantly being reverted or changed against the user's will. If that happens on existing machines, why should anyone trust that the same will not happen with Recall?

 

[Colif]

they will soon have it upon tons of people with 30 series, 40 series, RX 6000 series, RX 7000 series dGPUs

i hope you are wrong. I don't mind missing out on this "feature"

 

[pixelpusher220]

No, not really.

The "concept" would have been fine if it was:

1. Possible to install on demand (like other FoD in Windows so it can't be enabled unless explicitly installed)
2. Using encryption for database and images by default
3. Using file permissions so that other users can't see it by default

As it was initially, it was an alpha software (most likely some project manager's pet project) disguised as a feature.

"I am sorry Dave, I can't do that. You didn't create a backup and your only copy was deleted when you allowed your OneDrive subscription to expire."

Be careful what you wish for because computers remember things indiscriminately. It will also remember whatever next thing government declares illegal which you did long time ago and it won't have any compunction telling them about it when asked.

No, the issue is that humans are turning into idiots. Literally. They are outsourcing their basic faculties for no good reason other than "so I don't have to do it".

Here in EU it is against the law for administrators to shadow users using RDP session and watch their desktops while they work unless there is a justified need (which involves suspcion and court orders).

Furthermore, on someone else's PC you already have lower expectation of privacy than on a PC you own.

What you are saying boils down to "They were always capable of raping you -- you might as well try to relax and enjoy it now that they are forcing themselves on you."

Stop being an apologist for the abusers.

Dude, lay off the meth...

And learn the difference 'concept' and 'implementation'.

 

[CmdrShepard]

I'll add another point to this discussion. Has anyone here tried O&O ShutUp10++? It's a third party app for Windows 10 and 11 that tries to simplify Windows privacy settings by offering toggles for dozens of potentially unwanted features, including telemetry and updates. I've tinkered with it, and what struck me was how many settings were reverted after restarting the machine or updating it. This is on a Windows 10 box. Settings are constantly being reverted or changed against the user's will. If that happens on existing machines, why should anyone trust that the same will not happen with Recall?

You need to toggle the "Turn off experimentation" in O&O, that's what changes your settings.

Dude, lay off the meth...

I am not the one with poor understanding of how things work.

And learn the difference 'concept' and 'implementation'.

There's no difference between the two after a feature has been released. What that means is that their concept was crap to begin with because they released unsecured crap.

 

[ThomasKinsley]

You need to toggle the "Turn off experimentation" in O&O, that's what changes your settings.

I would love to do this, but I checked the app and it does not have this toggle. I was using v. 1.3 and also checked the latest v. 1.9.1438.

 

[CmdrShepard]

I would love to do this, but I checked the app and it does not have this toggle. I was using v. 1.3 and also checked the latest v. 1.9.1438.

Funny, I remember O&O having that option. Perhaps they have removed it since Microsoft claims it breaks known issue rollback?

If you want to set it anyway you can do so with registry:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\default\System\AllowExperimentation

Create a DWORD called value in that key if it doesn't exist and set it to 0.

 

[ThomasKinsley]

Funny, I remember O&O having that option. Perhaps they have removed it since Microsoft claims it breaks known issue rollback?

If you want to set it anyway you can do so with registry:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\default\System\AllowExperimentation

Create a DWORD called value in that key if it doesn't exist and set it to 0.

Thanks. I made the registry change and will see if any settings are reverted after the next batch of Windows updates.