this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2024
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A PR disaster: Microsoft has lost trust with its users, and Windows Recall is the straw that broke the camel's back (www.windowscentral.com)
submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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It's a nightmare scenario for Microsoft. The headlining feature of its new Copilot+ PC initiative, which is supposed to drive millions of PC sales over the next couple of years, is under significant fire for being what many say is a major breach of privacy and security on Windows. That feature in question is Windows Recall, a new AI tool designed to remember everything you do on Windows. The feature that we never asked and never wanted it.

Microsoft, has done a lot to degrade the Windows user experience over the last few years. Everything from obtrusive advertisements to full-screen popups, ignoring app defaults, forcing a Microsoft Account, and more have eroded the trust relationship between Windows users and Microsoft.

It's no surprise that users are already assuming that Microsoft will eventually end up collecting that data and using it to shape advertisements for you. That really would be a huge invasion of privacy, and people fully expect Microsoft to do it, and it's those bad Windows practices that have led people to this conclusion.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 5 months ago (3 children)

That's usually what I think too, but after watching how Twitter's gone to shit since the two big user departures, I think this could legitimately affect Microsoft's bottom line.

[–] [email protected] 68 points 5 months ago (2 children)

That will rely on businesses moving away from Windows. That is where they make a ton of their money with Enterprise licenses and Office 365 subscriptions.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 5 months ago (3 children)

And businesses don't give a shit about their employees' privacy

[–] [email protected] 41 points 5 months ago

They do care about keeping their company secrets and proprietary info though. Recall could make corporate espionage a cake walk.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago

We handle a lot of IP on our Windows PCs so it's debatable. However, in recent years, Microsoft has taken over most of our services with SSO, office 360, teams, etc so who knows.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

If you look at sysadmin forums and groups it seems like most recommend disabling recall. Just about every enterprise will have confidentiality, security, or legislative requirements that recall is simply inconsistent with. It's understandably been a hot topic.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Yup. It'll depend on how they handle Recall at the institutional level.

It's a given that hospitals and law firms will have to turn it off, as they're required by law to honor privilege. We'll see what choices they make.

I find the nosedive in Twitter's stock price these last few years encouraging. It seems for many there is a red line.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I believe the biggest thing that will hurt MS is moving to subscription. The vast majority of users aren't gonna wanna have a forever fee when they buy a laptop/PC

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

That's definitely going to be a problem for them, yes, because it's also going to drive a ton of traffic to Linux and Linux is going to get even better.