Cooper Lund: So Windows Recall takes screenshots every few seconds, OCR's them, and then stores all that in plaintext in a SQLlite database. It's impossible to understate how much of a security issue this is. Easily compromised spyware installed by your OS!

So Windows Recall takes screenshots every few seconds, OCR's them, and then stores all that in plaintext in a SQLlite database. It's impossible to understate how much of a security issue this is. Easily compromised spyware installed by your OS!

Windows feature that screenshots everything labeled a security “disaster”www.theverge.com Windows 11’s new Recall feature faces privacy and security concerns.

I thought that maybe Microsoft thought through the security implications here, but it's clear that either they did and decided it didn't matter, or didn't at all. I can't decide which is worse, but I will not be allowing any Copilot+ PCs in my enterprise either way.

I did my part! www.wired.com/story/micros...

Microsoft Will Switch Off Recall by Default After Security Backlashwww.wired.com After weeks of withering criticism and exposed security flaws, Microsoft has vastly scaled back its ambitions for Recall, its AI-enabled silent recording feature, and added new privacy features.

It is particularly wild in the face of the fact that Azure has had at least one SERIOUS security breach in recent memory - is MS security asleep at the wheel or are they being actively ignored on things like this? I suspect it's probably the latter but that kind of makes it worse!

It's definitely the latter. In the last ~15-20 yrs almost all the leadership at tech companies (and others, look at Boeing) has been replaced with Finance/McKinsey consultant types. They don't care about the details as long as the stock price goes up and quarterly profits look good.

And the Peter Principle.

I genuinely can't imagine any law firm ever buying windows products ever again, if this actually makes it to market.

I think it’s the first one. Every big tech company seems to think they’re the ones that are too good to have a data breach

I want to roll back to Windows 7, which was the last time I felt the OS was stable and good, but I don’t think any programs will still work with it. (Ideally I’d love to go back to WinXP) Their ‘one OS for all devices’ idea was so bad, but this is such a catastrophic misread of what consumers want.

Wonder if anyone is considering Linux more these day?

I've read Linux distributions have a higher market share than in the past.

Personally be using Linux nearly all my life, had a short run with MacOS,... I'm been considering for some time migrating from Apple to pine64.org/devices/pine...

PinePhonepine64.org An Open Source Smartphone Supported by All Major Linux Phone Projects The PinePhone is a smartphone that empowers users with control over the device. It is capable of running mainline Linux, features ...

I like open source products. That's why I'm a huge supporter of Linux, Bluesky, Android. Unfortunately, there are things at my workplace that require Windows. And PC gaming is still best on Windows. I work in the IT field for a bank... I would ditch Windows otherwise.

linux just isn't for gamers!!!

It actually is

not all my games are linux compatible.

At this point, the only games that aren't playable on Linux are multiplayer-focused with anti-cheat measures that do work on Linux but the developers refuse to support.

Yet.

Adult Content

Labeled by Bluesky Moderation Service

More likely Mac

I’m beginning to wonder how much of this “boneheaded ideals being pushed out halfbaked that completely jeopardize the brand reputation of every tech corporation” phenomenon has to do with all of those layoffs from last year.

"I thought that maybe Microsoft thought" ... hm, i think I see your problem.

The scary thing is though, even if you can control this locally, any interactions you have with external parties that have this feature enabled will be a security and privacy threat to you since their Windows11 will screenshot email or video calls involving you.

Who asked for this? What customer sees value here at such a degree that MS is pushing it so happily? As if Enterprises haven't had enough egregious security problems already.

This, a thousand times. I’m sure some people could use a feature like this — if it were secure — but not such an overwhelming number that it should be always on by default

I need a "what was I just about to look up, why did I open this tab?" for my brain, not a "what did I do at my computer 4 days and 5 hours ago?"

At least you can turn it off and it's only on specially marked PCs... for now...

Your average person who buys a new laptop every once in a while and just gets whatever the best buy rep recommends when they walk through the door isn't going to have a clue how this functions or if it's even there. This will just be on and putting them at risk.

And by extension, it will put you at risk if you interact with them. You sent an email with sensitive information to a relative some time ago, they opened it again, and the information is up there, ready to be harvested.

God, didn't even think about that. Holy shit this whole idea is a nightmare for everyone.

every AI "product" coming out just reeks of VCs and execs trying to brute force a justification for betting the farm on it

It's the current investor-atracting buzzword, like NFTs were a couple years ago.

Microsoft sees value in this. 1. as a grift to temporarily drive up stock price. 2. as a vehicle to steal everything about you and sell it to the highest bidder. We have created an economy where customers no longer matter one iota. Hope this helps.

Who asked: Product owners. What customer: That requires some mental adjustment, because it's an internal customer, & it's the guy who decides how big the product owners; bonuses are & to what roles they might hope to get promoted.

the executives at the top of the compoany needing a new feature to show off to shareholders, presumably

The NSA I presume

No one is asking for it - idk who convinced the corporate types that AI is the future (it’s not) but soooo many of them are desperate for it

Jesus Christ, it’s just plaintext SQLITE??

Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhh

OH MY GOD.

I know. Kinda shocked they didn't use MSDE.

At least it's not Access... 🤣

Jeeeeeeeeeeeesus. Once again, glad my machine *can't* run 11

To be fair, this only runs on Copilot+ machines

For now...

They're going to patch this into all machines, windows 10/11 that has a graphics card. AMD, Intel, Nvidia... The fact that copilot+ is coming to windows 10 says a lot really.

Test balloon

Don't have the link handy, but apparently it's not very difficult to get it working on a Win11 PC with high-end graphics. Not sure who'd enable it, but that might signal MS doesn't have much work to do to push it wide, if they choose.

Probably will get pushed to the Insider Preview, if it hasn’t already

My thought was that they might want to drive sales of CoPilot PCs, but maybe there are other considerations at work. (Like trying to drive artificially-inflated demand for CoPilot via activations of Recall? I'm only about 20% joking about that.)

Between this and my decently powerful gaming PC "not qualifying" for the upgrade I'm finally FULLY switching to Linux If I ever build a new Windows gaming PC it will ONLY be for games that simply cannot run under Linux

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