Microsoft to re-launch ‘privacy nightmare’ AI screenshot tool
www.bbc.com
It says it has listened to concerns about the tool, which continuously screenshots online activity.

Microsoft says it has “listened to feedback” following a privacy row over a new tool which takes regular screenshots of users’ activity.

It was labelled a potential “privacy nightmare” by critics when it was unveiled in May 2024 - prompting the tech giant to postpone its release. It now plans to relaunch the artificial intelligence (AI) powered tool in November on its new CoPilot+ computers.

[…]

When it initially announced the tool at its developer conference in May, Microsoft said it used AI “to make it possible to access virtually anything you have ever seen on your PC”, and likened it to having photographic memory. It said Recall could search through a users’ past activity, including their files, photos, emails and browsing history.

[…]

But critics quickly raised concerns, given the quantity of sensitive data the system would harvest, with one expert labelling it a potential “privacy nightmare."

[…]

[Pavan Davuluri, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Windows and devices says] that “Windows offers tools to help you control your privacy and customise what gets saved for you to find later”.

However a technical blog about it states that “diagnostic data” from the tool may be shared with the firm depending on individual privacy settings.

[Microsoft says in a blog post that users can remove Recall entirely by using the optional features settings in Windows.]

  • algorithmae@lemmy.sdf.org
    6·
    2 months ago

    You can keep using win10 without security updates, just be smart about it. Have a good firewall, and just use it for gaming and bills or whatever and you’ll be fine

    • switchboard_pete@fedia.io
      41·
      2 months ago

      You can keep using win10 without security updates

      if you want to be part of a botnet in a few years, sure

      just be smart about it

      being smart about it means not using an unsupported os

      • thingsiplay@beehaw.org
        8·
        2 months ago

        being smart about it means not using an unsupported os

        Or do not connect to the internet. I have Windows 98 SE installed in an emulator… I know it’s a bit old, but I don’t connect to internet. :D

          • thingsiplay@beehaw.org
            3·
            2 months ago

            haha in fact I was thinking of installing Windows 95 instead, because I wasn’t sure if Win 98 was too new. xD Its all just to play games.

            • Lvxferre
              4·
              2 months ago

              Its all just to play games.

              Ditto - that W3.11 install is just because of the Windows Entertainment Pack, I love a few of the games in it (like Pipe Dream). I don’t even know if it’s able to connect to the internet!

      • DdCno1@beehaw.org
        7·
        2 months ago

        … until you inevitably need to use the shell. Linux, no matter the flavor, has been very easy to use in the 22 years that I’ve tried to use it - until you need to dig ever so slightly deeper for something and then it very much isn’t. I started out with a Knoppix live-CD back in 2002. Remember that distro?

        • Lvxferre
          7·
          2 months ago

          I started with a Knoppix-based distro, called Kurumin. KDE 3 was the rage back then!

          On your main point: the shell might be hard in the beginning, but for most things that you need to use the shell with, people on the internet already had the same issue and shared how to do it. Unless you’re actively trying to make something different, like I did with my audio switching script.

          And even the sort of situation that you need to use the shell for decreased by a lot from back then to now.

        • kbal@fedia.io
          7·
          2 months ago

          It looks like your opinions about Linux are outdated and need an update.

        • kent_eh@lemmy.caEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          I started out with a Knoppix live-CD back in 2002. Remember that distro?

          Thats what got me to start dual-booting and eventually nuke my Win XP install entirely.

          It’s been all penguins ever since.

        • Teils13@lemmy.eco.br
          1·
          2 months ago

          What kind of task made you use the shell in Linux Mint (and i only know Mint after 2021) ? Was it a common task a regular person would need to do, or was it a geek or pro task that regular people would not even know it exists ? I installed Nvidia drivers with a click-install GUI easier than the windows equivalent, the appstore that is only rivaled by Apple had every debian and flatpak program i searched, and all the configurations i could ever tweak are in the configurations manager (unlike the current Windows mess of control panel and worse control panel).