TL;DR: Microsoft is working on a system called Recall that wants to record literally every action you take on your system ever, analyze it with muh AI, and store it in a database. The database then sits with no hint of security on your hard drive, making it available to basically anyone with access, even remotely. Accessing that database as an attacker (whether it's a Romanian script kiddy trying to get to your crypto, or the Feds, or whoever else) is a question of a couple of lines of code. The street shitters who now compose Microsoft's management and workforce see no issues with this, because they're inbred 80IQ retards with falsified credentials. In reality it's a security catastrophe.
It hasn't been rolled out yet, but it absolutely will be. Disable it, and then switch to Linux.
I'm already seeing articles on how to disable it. It's not in the current batch of windows machines on sale, but it will be, soon.
I still can't fathom what the flying fuck Microsoft is thinking, though. I know there's stupidity, but this has gone beyond casual and straight into S-tier professional stupidity.
Haven't had a chance to discuss stuff with my IT guys, but I wonder how that conversation is going to go, given all the sensitive information we deal with on a regular basis.
I guess Microsoft has calculated that the cries of "I'll switch to Linux" will be a small percentage of their userbase, companies will still stick to Windows for desktop usage and that Mac OS will either implement a similar feature or will also have people not adopt it in large numbers.
My concern is that Governments are in bed with Microsoft (to the point that organisations are switching from Google Chrome to Microsoft Edge) and they will be rolling out this update on computers that have confidential personal data that could be easily compromised. We may switch to Linux but they most certainly won't.
Linux Mint is one of the most popular choice for beginners. Otherwise, you could also pick one of the most popular (includes Mint, but also Ubuntu, Fedora, etc.), since they are popular, it's has good support and likely to have fixed many issues already with most systems.
That dude is the type of retard that mocks people for saying certain thing will happen and then gets mad and blames Trump when the bad thing actually does happen
Word on the tech business side is that everyone is ready to flip to Linux or an Android alternative (Opensource with all the paid for attachments to bring it up to speed) as operating systems are much more accessible now and Microsoft has lost its way.
We'll see though as they flip and flop with their decisions more than the white papers that ZDNet used to use to make recommendations.
gets some proper corpo backing for a real normie distro people can finally use.
My fantasy is Tesla and Valve work together on a new general OS for the people. Actually Tesla likes telemetry and forced updates so let's leave it up to Valve.
gets some proper corpo backing for a real normie distro people can finally use.
We're already getting DIE purity testing in the OSS projects managed under Redhat/IBM. Just let computing for normies die, they clearly don't need it and make things worse for everyone.
Linux is never going to be a viable replacement for Windows unfortunately. I can't think of a pithy way to phrase it, but by it's nature it will never be coherent and reliable enough with a cohesive design such that it can take the place of Windows. It's simply a byproduct of its nature as an open source OS. At best it can be a stop-gap for dedicated autists looking to escape the Microsoft environment but it will never reach the point where it's going to be a functional replacement for the Windows desktop.
Linux as an escape hatch is outright cope and willful denial of reality.
You're highlighting my point by lamenting the need to herd the cats into achieving anything meaningful. Linux will continue to be what it always was and not what people wish it could become.
I've tried. It's been tough with games--especially if you aren't a Steam acolyte and play a lot of games older than 5 years. I'm still going to push that way as I can. Maybe just the modern stuff I play. At which point, I could pretty easily roll back to a locked down Windows 10 for everything else. I guess lucky for me I really only game on my Windows machine, so their telemetry that I haven't disabled is going to look about like what they'd get from a game console.
On top of lutris I recommend bottles which is yet another wine loader but for a different cause. I mostly use it to install gog games as they work quite well.
At least in government work there's talks about alternatives I heard from a friend who used to work in that field recently as a temp job. Seems like w11 is a security nightmare.
The first wave of lawsuits against Microsoft when people start harvesting all this free data is going to be wild. Even if you personally dump Microsoft for Linux all the companies with your data probably aren't.
All your medical and financial information will belong to Vlad, Chao and Ravi soon. Good luck!
As an FYI, you can submit a written request to companies to have them delete your information from their database. Of course they can try to refuse, but if there's no legitimate reason for them having your data then your request should be honored.
"We no longer have your data. Our AI consumed it and the AI merely contains a series of weights networked together in such a way that they could theoretically reproduce your data."
Supposedly you can turn it off - if you upgrade to Windows 11, you have the option to turn off the automatic AI recording feature known as "Recall." To disable Recall, you can follow these steps:
Open Settings on Windows 11.
Click on Privacy & security.
Select the Recall & snapshots page.
Turn off the Save snapshots toggle switch.
Additionally, if you want to delete any snapshots that have already been saved, you can do so in the same section by clicking the Delete all button¹.
It's also possible to disable the Recall feature through the Registry or Group Policy Editor for more advanced control. Microsoft provides these options to ensure users can manage their privacy and security according to their preferences.
Even if that toggle works I'd expect then to randomly turn it back on after an update or two. Microsoft has been known to fuck with settings that you turned off or on.
As we move into the corporate wars era, with like actual digital combat, I can't imagine having a node like this would last long. It's a huge vulnerability. I guess it makes things efficient for apps and environments, but it would be a nightmare to protect in megacorp v megacorp blackops.
It'll probably end up like most things. The elites will have different rules and the peasants will have the burden of vulnerabilities and surveillance. It'll be a way to further solidify caste structure in a global, digital world.
Upside! Is maybe something like this gets some competition going again for rival OS's. The only reason I haven't switched over to Linux is laziness. I just.. It's too fiddly for EVERYTHING. Windows and OSX are just easy.
As we move into the corporate wars era, with like actual digital combat
Does this new project not give various groups more tools to do this? What's stopping 4chan/pol from just blasting the input AI with nothing but Pepe memes and other shit in order to fuckup whatever analysis is going to happen?
I could see some fun or interesting applications for something like this, IF, I repeat, IF, it was my own software that I'd designed and trusted, and I kept it 100% localized, secure, and "off the grid". (Also, I'd want a quick toggle for it so I'd only use it for specific situations. No autorun, that kind of thing.)
No way in hells do I put any trust in ANY company with this however.
I literally have no idea what this recall features use case would be. Maybe MAYBE someone who works on it and loses progress due to a program crash. But that could be fixed by not having programs crash or make auto saves more frequent. Other use cases seem superfluous and unneeded. Trying to remember a thing I saw on the net? History in the browser or even better: bookmarks. It all jsit seems like Spyware disguised as this "cool" feature.
Shamelessly stealing this from the Kiwifarms thread about this whole clusterfuck:
The point of the 'AI' bullshit is to allow for some 'fuzzy' search. A typical Recall AI use case involves a typical user vaguely remembering that he found a great video on his new Surface Laptop on PornHub that he remembers as ten bears with the gift barebacking a twink, but searching his Edge browser history for 'ten' 'bears' 'bareback' 'twink' and 'HIV' doesn't find anything. He remembers the cool new feature that the streetshitters added in just for him, and asks Recall AI for "video with ten bears with AIDS barebacking a twink".
The AI is able to do its sophisticated thesaurus-fiddling to realize that what he meant by the query was the video it spent several minutes screenshotting where the window title was "Twelve HUNG DADDIES with rawdog a bugchasing YUNG BOY". Truly a great advance for human science and technology.
to be fair i have a seperate windows installation for the 1 single game i can't play properly on windows.
every other game, especially old and retro ones run way easier on linux.
just point steam to the .exe. if it doesnt run change the proton version till it runs.
if you need a mod manager, use steamtinkerlaunch and have it automatically install modorganizer2.
and the 1 game i need windows for? thats only because i need a saturation toggler to play counter-strike in a clan and the shit kernel-level spyware for 3rd party servers because valve are spastic cunts who can't get their shit together.
Yep. The guy who did it wrote an automated tool to parse the plaintext data Recall stores on your HD, Kevin Beaumont, wrote an article about the risks.
TL;DR: Microsoft is working on a system called Recall that wants to record literally every action you take on your system ever, analyze it with muh AI, and store it in a database. The database then sits with no hint of security on your hard drive, making it available to basically anyone with access, even remotely. Accessing that database as an attacker (whether it's a Romanian script kiddy trying to get to your crypto, or the Feds, or whoever else) is a question of a couple of lines of code. The street shitters who now compose Microsoft's management and workforce see no issues with this, because they're inbred 80IQ retards with falsified credentials. In reality it's a security catastrophe.
It hasn't been rolled out yet, but it absolutely will be. Disable it, and then switch to Linux.
If you prefer a video, here's Mental Outlaw going over it: https://preservetube.com/watch?v=oSBDkPxivuA
And here's an article from yesterday saying Microsoft is aware of this insane clusterfuck and sees no issue with it: https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/06/microsoft_research_recall/
Half of them probably working tech support scams on the side.
Half? Surely that's a low estimate.
Rookie numbers? Rookie numbers.
I'm already seeing articles on how to disable it. It's not in the current batch of windows machines on sale, but it will be, soon.
I still can't fathom what the flying fuck Microsoft is thinking, though. I know there's stupidity, but this has gone beyond casual and straight into S-tier professional stupidity.
Haven't had a chance to discuss stuff with my IT guys, but I wonder how that conversation is going to go, given all the sensitive information we deal with on a regular basis.
It’s not a bug, it’s a feature
I guess Microsoft has calculated that the cries of "I'll switch to Linux" will be a small percentage of their userbase, companies will still stick to Windows for desktop usage and that Mac OS will either implement a similar feature or will also have people not adopt it in large numbers.
My concern is that Governments are in bed with Microsoft (to the point that organisations are switching from Google Chrome to Microsoft Edge) and they will be rolling out this update on computers that have confidential personal data that could be easily compromised. We may switch to Linux but they most certainly won't.
Any distro suggestions? I need something that's relatively newbie friendly and has good community support..
Linux Mint is one of the most popular choice for beginners. Otherwise, you could also pick one of the most popular (includes Mint, but also Ubuntu, Fedora, etc.), since they are popular, it's has good support and likely to have fixed many issues already with most systems.
i'm on PopOS which i think is a fork of linux mint
I've tried Mint Cinnamon, Mint xfce, OpenSuse Leap, and Devuan with SysV init, and so far Linux Mint Cinnamon has been my favorite.
savage
Related: https://kotakuinaction2.win/p/17t1yBRahd/new-windows-ai-feature-records-e/c
Gotta love the corpo knob polisher in the replies telling you you're crazy this is nothing special.
That dude is the type of retard that mocks people for saying certain thing will happen and then gets mad and blames Trump when the bad thing actually does happen
Not as related but still relevant:
https://kotakuinaction2.win/p/17tKsIGWUD/adobe-releases-new-terms-of-serv/c/
It's not just Microsoft. All these Big Tech companies' products are little more than spyware.
I believe this is all a part of what they call "Copilot," right?
Correct.
Word on the tech business side is that everyone is ready to flip to Linux or an Android alternative (Opensource with all the paid for attachments to bring it up to speed) as operating systems are much more accessible now and Microsoft has lost its way.
We'll see though as they flip and flop with their decisions more than the white papers that ZDNet used to use to make recommendations.
My fantasy is Tesla and Valve work together on a new general OS for the people. Actually Tesla likes telemetry and forced updates so let's leave it up to Valve.
Valve also likes telemetry AKA spying plus forced updates.
The Steam Deck already runs on Linux...
All we need is a compatible PC OS, and we're there.
We're already getting DIE purity testing in the OSS projects managed under Redhat/IBM. Just let computing for normies die, they clearly don't need it and make things worse for everyone.
Linux is never going to be a viable replacement for Windows unfortunately. I can't think of a pithy way to phrase it, but by it's nature it will never be coherent and reliable enough with a cohesive design such that it can take the place of Windows. It's simply a byproduct of its nature as an open source OS. At best it can be a stop-gap for dedicated autists looking to escape the Microsoft environment but it will never reach the point where it's going to be a functional replacement for the Windows desktop.
Linux as an escape hatch is outright cope and willful denial of reality.
You're highlighting my point by lamenting the need to herd the cats into achieving anything meaningful. Linux will continue to be what it always was and not what people wish it could become.
my distro just updated from plasma5 to plasma6. suddenly all the file-manager shortcuts were changed.
from a simple f10 to make a new folder to the shitty windows 3-button shortcut.
linux is already on it's way to become as user-unfriendly and shit as windows.
You have it backwards friend. Linux has always been the standard-bearer for user-unfriendly.
i can't even imagine managing my music/media and rom/games collection on windows. let alone handling projects for work.
the most simple thing like tabs in dolphin is already a game changer saving me countless hours.
Mint.
I've tried. It's been tough with games--especially if you aren't a Steam acolyte and play a lot of games older than 5 years. I'm still going to push that way as I can. Maybe just the modern stuff I play. At which point, I could pretty easily roll back to a locked down Windows 10 for everything else. I guess lucky for me I really only game on my Windows machine, so their telemetry that I haven't disabled is going to look about like what they'd get from a game console.
There's a loader called Lutris that makes running non-Steam games/programs painless and simple. http://lutris.net/
Yeah, that's on my list. I'm going to try it once I get to a real dual boot. I have to get my hands on (buy) a 2.5" SSD first
On top of lutris I recommend bottles which is yet another wine loader but for a different cause. I mostly use it to install gog games as they work quite well.
At least in government work there's talks about alternatives I heard from a friend who used to work in that field recently as a temp job. Seems like w11 is a security nightmare.
The first wave of lawsuits against Microsoft when people start harvesting all this free data is going to be wild. Even if you personally dump Microsoft for Linux all the companies with your data probably aren't.
All your medical and financial information will belong to Vlad, Chao and Ravi soon. Good luck!
As an FYI, you can submit a written request to companies to have them delete your information from their database. Of course they can try to refuse, but if there's no legitimate reason for them having your data then your request should be honored.
"We no longer have your data. Our AI consumed it and the AI merely contains a series of weights networked together in such a way that they could theoretically reproduce your data."
What a bizarre feature that nobody asked for except the feds. I can't see any reason I would ever want to revisited my past actions on my computer.
Supposedly you can turn it off - if you upgrade to Windows 11, you have the option to turn off the automatic AI recording feature known as "Recall." To disable Recall, you can follow these steps:
Additionally, if you want to delete any snapshots that have already been saved, you can do so in the same section by clicking the Delete all button¹.
It's also possible to disable the Recall feature through the Registry or Group Policy Editor for more advanced control. Microsoft provides these options to ensure users can manage their privacy and security according to their preferences.
"Oops, disabling it didn't actually work and we still took all your data!" 🙄
[x] Doubt
Even if that toggle works I'd expect then to randomly turn it back on after an update or two. Microsoft has been known to fuck with settings that you turned off or on.
As we move into the corporate wars era, with like actual digital combat, I can't imagine having a node like this would last long. It's a huge vulnerability. I guess it makes things efficient for apps and environments, but it would be a nightmare to protect in megacorp v megacorp blackops.
It'll probably end up like most things. The elites will have different rules and the peasants will have the burden of vulnerabilities and surveillance. It'll be a way to further solidify caste structure in a global, digital world.
Upside! Is maybe something like this gets some competition going again for rival OS's. The only reason I haven't switched over to Linux is laziness. I just.. It's too fiddly for EVERYTHING. Windows and OSX are just easy.
Does this new project not give various groups more tools to do this? What's stopping 4chan/pol from just blasting the input AI with nothing but Pepe memes and other shit in order to fuckup whatever analysis is going to happen?
No wonder Windows is so slow. System resources gets wasted on crap like this.
Sounds like a prime opportunity for trolls to set up nodes to intentionally feed false data to the system.
What an utterly retarded attack route to give the internet with no prompt. Wonder what groups will flood this with shit first, 4chan or discord.
I could see some fun or interesting applications for something like this, IF, I repeat, IF, it was my own software that I'd designed and trusted, and I kept it 100% localized, secure, and "off the grid". (Also, I'd want a quick toggle for it so I'd only use it for specific situations. No autorun, that kind of thing.)
No way in hells do I put any trust in ANY company with this however.
What is Copilot nominally intended to do?
I literally have no idea what this recall features use case would be. Maybe MAYBE someone who works on it and loses progress due to a program crash. But that could be fixed by not having programs crash or make auto saves more frequent. Other use cases seem superfluous and unneeded. Trying to remember a thing I saw on the net? History in the browser or even better: bookmarks. It all jsit seems like Spyware disguised as this "cool" feature.
Shamelessly stealing this from the Kiwifarms thread about this whole clusterfuck:
Windows bros be like :
to be fair i have a seperate windows installation for the 1 single game i can't play properly on windows.
every other game, especially old and retro ones run way easier on linux.
just point steam to the .exe. if it doesnt run change the proton version till it runs. if you need a mod manager, use steamtinkerlaunch and have it automatically install modorganizer2.
and the 1 game i need windows for? thats only because i need a saturation toggler to play counter-strike in a clan and the shit kernel-level spyware for 3rd party servers because valve are spastic cunts who can't get their shit together.
I often forget that people still use Windows.
Yep. The guy who
did itwrote an automated tool to parse the plaintext data Recall stores on your HD, Kevin Beaumont, wrote an article about the risks.It's worth a read.