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I’ve seen this movie before. They will make it enabled by default and make it difficult to disable. Then a few years later someone will figure out that this data that was supposed to be “private and encrypted” was being sent out to Microsoft, who will get a slap on the wrist, half assedly apologize and immediately move on to even more anti consumer ways to squeeze more income out of its users for “growth”.
immediately move on to even more anti consumer ways
but they’ll keep collecting that data even after the slap on the wrist which will be more like a gentle tap
fine-no-jail-time = cost of doing business.
More like a high five from the NSA.
This is disheartening because it’s true. 😭
This touches on what I find the most fuckin irritating about the current state of software decision. I bought this super generic run of the mill disk clean up software. In the past I’ve used similar software and the fucking spam for add on this amd plugin that or defend your pc with this… it’s fucking insane. Finding burried files from apps I deleted years ago. Well this time I got lucky. I download it, run it. Doesn’t ask me to sign up for shit, I don’t have to make an account. No added features for blah.99$ The fucking shit just ran after install, batch fixed it all. Then in the final report flagged it’s own fucking software as obsolete and quoued it up for delete. CUSTOMER FOR FUCKING LIFE. Who thr fuck is running these reports that must show customer retention is higher when you fuck them in the ass till they bleed green. I would pay fuckin 5x’s the price of windows os if it meant I could play steam games on a windows system with Linux tiered performance and security. Why the fuck is cramming so much bloatware that you need to upgrade your whole system the new thing. Fuck windows, fuck Google, fuck samsung and youtube.YouTube.
Edit: obligatory edit and shoutout to all the shitbag game developers too for thinking anyone fucking want another game that runs at 2 fps because it starts raining in the game. Fuck your 4k atari games. They’re a fucking embarrassment to everyone who has worked in the industry.
when will we learn sigh
You’re assuming at that point being outraged will have any impact, or that people will be allowed to be outraged.
I’m not saying that won’t happen but if it does Microsoft will be absolutely fucked as they got caught committing several million HIPAA violations, not to mention any exposure to classified material on government computers.
My only thought there is “LOL”
- Export violations (sanctioned countries)
- Illegally collected personal information from children
- Price fixing
- Wage theft
- Discrimination
- Privacy violations
- Mismanaging peoples 401ks
There are long, long, loooooong lists of violations MS has been caught for. The penalty has always been a fine small enough that it’s a cost of doing business.
Why are you doing a list of ideas for Microsoft to abuse customers? Yes it’s a list if things they have done. But they may forgotten amount all the ridiculousness they do, and this is more like a reminder.
You should read up on penalties for HIPAA violations, they don’t fuck around.
I’m aware of them.
Let’s look at some of the most historic:
- NY Presbyterian Hospital - with no real efforts on their end to prevent the violation of thousands of records, they got a whopping fine of… Under $5 million.
- AHC - lack of risk analysis, failures in procedures and policies, etc - Just over $5 million.
- Data breaches - usually around $4-5mil, the worst case being Anthem, about 80 million people effected - $16 million in fines. A record.
Criminal offenses? Yeah, plenty of those - with individuals, usually related to that information then being used for other purposes (scams, theft, etc).
But a company like Microsoft, you’re going to have a hard time convincing me it’s going to ruin the company. The history of HIPAA violations and their fines tell a very different story.
You’re right they don’t, but only for covered entities which MS is not in any shape or form
It’s just like when Grindr or whatever leaked people’s STD status, they nor MS are a medical provider or “covered business entity”
HIPAA is an ok privacy law, but it is not the all supreme health privacy law you think it is
You should read up on anyone even coming close to being beholden to those penalties, because they absolutely do fuck around when its corporations.
Consumer PCs are almost certainly not covered entities under HIPAA, nor is Microsoft in its role as an OS provider.
Even then, if this whole thing were to result in an inappropriate disclosure by a covered entity, the organization that processes the data would be liable, not Microsoft.
That’s like blaming the building contractor because you left the door unlocked and someone came in and stole your cat.
People give HIPAA way too much credit all the time, it’s fairly strict on who actually falls under it.
You’d think so, right?
Remember when this was considered the behavior of malware?
Pepperidge Farm remembers.
Well the malware authors of yore could have gotten away with it, so long as they attached their malware to an even slightly useful program, added an EULA that was 40 pages long and on one of those pages mentioned the malware and had no way to use the software without agreement.
Wasn’t that basically Bonzi Buddy and whatever software bundled it without any options to opt out? 😆
The activities the program is said to engage in include constantly resetting the user’s web browser homepage to bonzi.com without the user’s permission, prompting and tracking various information about the user, installing a toolbar, and serving advertisements
Looks to me like they taught Microsoft well in this area.
Ain’t no way bonzi.com redirects to a fucking nft
Kinda on brand though somehow.
It’s still malware.
Linux can run from a USB stick to try it out before committing to a full install.
Not to be that guy but I cold-turkey switched daily driver and I cannot believe I didn’t do it earlier. Total amateur “copy-paster” and the only thing I sometimes can’t get working are pirated games. Steam changed everything for gaming.
I did the same. To add to the cliche, I went nuclear and jumped into Arch. Games were my biggest concern, but I’ve had zero issues with games, minor issues with Nvidia, but if I’d have gone with a stable distro, it would have been an easy transition. I’m confident that anyone who can use Windows even semi functionally, can transition to something like Mint with minimal issue. Other than no local MS office apps, I bet most people would assume it’s a new Windows release.
I switched my kids’ PCs to Pop!_OS and other than “icons moving” yeah they didn’t notice.
Especially when they mostly use Firefox and Steam, and those are exactly the same.
I left windows because of the ai stuff but I didn’t expect it to get this bad. This is literally malware.
This is finally it for me. I just can’t justify this any longer and will need to dedicate myself to running some flavor of Linux permanently as my daily driver.
I think I’ll do the same. I wasn’t switching because of compatibility but I realized that there are only 1 or 2 apps that don’t run natively and I don’t use them that often
Which distro do you recommend? I haven’t used linux in a while, I usually went with ubuntu but I think that’s not the go-to anymore?
I am no expert though I like Linux Mint it has a windows 7 feel to it which makes it a great distro to start with.
Lots of people hate on Ubuntu for Snaps, but that’s your own preference. Any of the Ubuntu-based derivatives should work just as well. I would recommend Zorin or Mint, and probably throw PopOS! in for good measure.
Ubuntu is still really good and quite nicely polished. Alternatively, mint and fedora also get a lot of recommendations.
I personally use ubuntu.
PopOS is highly recommended, I tried it for a bit and really liked it, I need to plug in a second drive on my main pc to dual boot it there
The distro recommendation is usually mint, but I’d like to know, what does your setup look like? (Monitor specs, PC specs etc)
It’s a laptop with i3 gen 11, 12GB RAM, and I mainly use it for browsing, torrenting and watching movies (4K, connected to a TV)
Oh yeah, then if you like the look of it, Linux mint is the best option
Lol, it’s not even a feature yet… And when it is, it will almost certainly come as an optional feature you need to opt into.
Just like, pre-installed Edge and Onedrive, completely opt in and one day a windows update (automatically) reboots your pc and you just got opted in.
I’m going to make a Linux distro that helps you forget everything you did on the computer. “Oh, man. I was drunk last night. Thank god BoxWineOS comes with the Neuralyzer program.”
And the program is just some guy who comes by your place and hits you over the head with a baseball bat lol
To use Recall, users will need to purchase one of the new “Copilot Plus PCs” powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite chips, which include the necessary neural processing unit (NPU).
Well, I guess I’m keeping my current notebook for the unforseeable future.
Fear not! Eventually you’ll be forced to take an update that will bring this blessing to you:
On devices that are not powered by a Snapdragon® X Series processor, installation of a Windows update will be required to run Recall.
Yeah. But they’ll likely make Azure Recall running on their own AI hardware. You’ll have to opt out (on every windows update) of their ad driven free model that uses your data to target ads, and sell your overall profile on.
Or you know, you can just not turn it on.
IF that’s an option and IF it don’t turn itself on after an update. Given Microsoft’s history I wouldn’t trust that. They invested way too much in AI to afford making it easy for the user not to use the feature.
I am really liking Linux Mint more and more . . .
Can I just continue to not sign in to a Microsoft account and be good? Seems like it’s all tied to that
The Linux evangelists always jump on this stuff without reading the articles. Do not be alarmed by them. This is currently just a beta feature that Microsoft is still testing.
If Microsoft announces that this is going to be forcibly installed on all versions of Windows, then we can grab our pitchforks. Ideally this would end up being an opt-in feature. If it’s an opt-out when they release, again, pitchforks.
For now? Give them feedback if you’re worried, otherwise move on with your day and do nothing.
If Microsoft announces that this is going to be forcibly installed on all versions of Windows, then we can grab our pitchforks
Complaining when it is already released is too late to stop it.
Yeah I wish I had the time/knowledge to make Linux my main OS but it’s just unlikely to happen. I use my “gaming” PC primarily for work (like 95%), and have way too many programs and files that I don’t want to risk breaking/losing to make a switch. Maybe the next computer I build I’ll make a Linux setup but for now I’m stuck with Windows no matter what
They didn’t ask permission before pushing Copilot, why would they ask permission for this?
I heard the next version of Windows will ravage your whole family, and the only solution is to immediately wipe all of your computers and install Linux.
It’s too late for me, since I hesitated. Bill’s already outside. If only I listened to the obnoxious, uninvited, endless evangelism of the Linux userbase!
Woe is us, the users of the evil platform! Woe!!1!
It’s never too late! Call Tux and he’ll rush over to do battle with Bill.
Seems like this will not be a thing in most typical PCs, for the time being, as it requires specific hardware and opt in to a feature.
Not liking how pervasive AI features have become, though.
The joke is that the model itself runs locally, but it still is basically spyware that then will be used for data harvesting. Typically you run local LLMs to avoid this exact purpose / risk. So MS isn’t even willing to give you the performance benefit of running the LLM on their servers for doing this.
Will Copilot+ PC experiences come to devices powered by AMD or Intel processors? Yes. We are partnering with Intel and AMD to bring Copilot+ PC experiences to PCs with their processors in the future.
I’d give it a year at most till this comes to desktops.
The same could be said about Windows 11 since it demands a TPM chip. Not that I’m complaining, since all I had to do was disable the chip to keep 11 away for good.
Everyone knows Microsoft is going to wait a bit for the seeds to sprout and harvest all that data.
There’s a great app for easily turning all of the tracking features off: https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10
“Recall uses Copilot+ PC advanced processing capabilities to take images of your active screen every few seconds,”
Seems like a lot of extra disk thrashing that would shorten the life expectancy of an SSD? Like it would be considerably more than your usual background chatter of daemons writing to log files and what not. Unless I’m misunderstanding this?
This is the best summary I could come up with:
At a Build conference event on Monday, Microsoft revealed a new AI-powered feature called “Recall” for Copilot+ PCs that will allow Windows 11 users to search and retrieve their past activities on their PC.
To make it work, Recall records everything users do on their PC, including activities in apps, communications in live meetings, and websites visited for research.
By performing a Recall action, users can access a snapshot from a specific time period, providing context for the event or moment they are searching for.
For example, someone with access to your Windows account could potentially use Recall to see everything you’ve been doing recently on your PC, which might extend beyond the embarrassing implications of pornography viewing and actually threaten the lives of journalists or perceived enemies of the state.
Despite the privacy concerns, Microsoft says that the Recall index remains local and private on-device, encrypted in a way that is linked to a particular user’s account.
To use Recall, users will need to purchase one of the new “Copilot Plus PCs” powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite chips, which include the necessary neural processing unit (NPU).
The original article contains 596 words, the summary contains 188 words. Saved 68%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
No it doesn’t. (My PC runs Linux.)
