Yet another reminder that alternatives, where your privacy is not for sale, and your hardware belongs to you, actually exist in 2024
this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2024
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it's for corporations to deploy on all their worker drones' workstations
I wish they would do a much better job of distinguishing corporate workstation versions of Windows and Home versions of Windows. Put all this MS ecosystem garbage on the workstation version, and make the Home version a stripped down to the essentials OS. Which is what most of us try to do with tools like ShutUp10, anyway.
Ironically, in reality it's the exact opposite. The home version is pumped to the brim with this dogshit, while the Enterprise version is stripped to the bare necessities. They likely know that other corporations have the balls to sue them for all kinds of reasons
I get ads on my workstation. Its fun. I cant remove them without getting permission from the IT department. Meanwhile my home computers have no ads at all.
i'll do you one better: all PCs at my job are running win10 LTSC, which was meant for specific use cases like running neon signs and shit
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How long before there’s a discovery request for all recall data for a time period and companies start screaming about the risks with recall?
companies start screaming about the risks with recall?
this comment veers pretty close to implying that upper and middle management know a single goddamn thing about tech or cybersecurity OR that they listen to their IT guys
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Who thought they were abandoning it?
I doubt they secured it particularly well either, because the nature of proper security is building it from the ground up with security as a core principle, but it was always coming back.
They delayed because "oh shit, people noticed we didn't even bother with security theater" and to let the backlash die down. They still consider it a major selling point.
By the comments I've seen, it seems like no one read their previous announcement where they said they were delaying the feature while they continued work on it. We already knew they were still going to ship it.
Just having it disabled by default is a massive improvement. It's crazy that they initially considered releasing it with no encryption and it on by default.
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They did abandon it but it backed itself up
While Recall may have sounded great on paper and on work-related PCs,
Ah yes, all those IT people were probably thrilled with the prospect of Microsoft getting sent constant screenshots of their employees' machines, with all those company secrets, sensitive information, and everything
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They never said they were doing away with it. It's a feature literally no one asked for, it's insecure, it's invasive, a privacy nightmare any way you look at it.
And people who willingly use it will deserve all the shit that it is. And meanwhile, I'll be enjoying my privacy-respecting Linux operating system.
I am keeping Win 10 until I can't safely anymore then Linux may be my next stop. Been looking at CachyOS for gaming.
Why cachy?
IDK why they want to but to me the name seems pretty catchy
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"has enough time passed that we won't get bad press for this?"
Linux is just as bad though
.zsh_history records every command you run!
(/s, obviously...)
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So imagine you're on PornHub and then out of nowhere, Clippy shows up and says "hmmm looks like you need some help pleasuring yourself", then starts flicking through similar nude pictures and videos to what you've been looking at before. The idle animation of the AI assistant even changes to Clippy morphing into the shape of a penis and shagging a rolled up piece of lined paper is if it were a fleshlight. You can't tell if Microsoft are mocking you for being a coomer, nor can you tell whether to find Clippy's sexual deviancy funny or creepy.
Somehow that hypothetical dystopia of Clippy watching you masturbate is only slightly worse than what Microsoft plan to do with Recall. If the mere thought of a machine learning AI taking screenshots of your desktop every few seconds and learning from your computer usage habits isn't absolutely fucking terrifying... Then imagine that these are likely being uploaded to a server for the perusal of advertisers, intelligence agencies and any hackers skilled enough to break into Microsoft's servers.
Even if it was stored locally, all it takes is one dodgy web link for you to inadvertently send all your Recall data to a hacker and have it ransomed.
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<Insert how you'll use Linux> <rest of the population uses Windows because they don't know shit about tech and how shitty this is> <realize work loves Microsoft and you can't change that>
Work is the only reason I still have windows in my life, and thankfully, they will be trialing linux as an option for employees in the next month or two. I signed up so damn quick lol.
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people not knowing shit about tech is not their fault. I've been using tech for 30+ years, and I'm usually the most tech savvy person in my circle of family and friends, except for a friend in IT.
the reason I'm not getting into Linux is no longer gaming, it's that whenever i see some fuckers talking about Linux it's completely indecipherable with proper names, commands, and jargon. it's straight up technobabble, and when it's not insufferable elitism it's certainly disinviting.
you think people are going to listen to a bunch of nerds talking about distros and shit, using 40 different acronyms within two sentences, and think "ah this is my new home" ... like do you fucking hear yourselves at all‽ you sound exactly like a character from the hackers, and not in a good way.
if anything is preventing people from switching it's Linux users, and probably developers as well. if you make it look like people have to have a degree to get into your shit, they're not gonna do it.
Even more annoying is how many people in the Linux community often recommend distros that are terrible for beginners. People who constantly try to tell newbies to download base debian or arch should be removed from the conversation instantly.
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MS: Here's a cool new feature!
Users: That is spyware bullshit, fuck off!
MS: But muh ecosystem!
Users: Nobody fucking wants any of that. Now STFU and run my games, grandpa.
MS: sniffs This isn't over, you little shits.
This tool stinks of management requesting a better way to spy the employees. It has little to no benefits for the user.
I'm not sure any company wants to have recordings of their employees screens feed to Microsoft servers. It could never happen at my company because of the amount of private information we deal with. Privacy laws, NDAs, you name it. There's no way we could enable this without a shit storm of risk.
Their feature may come back to their OS but their OS isn’t coming back to my hardware.
I wonder why are they so invested into this "feature".
Building a fully trained model on user preferences/habits is the holy grail of marketing.
You can infer user intelligence, addictive personalities, and vices. You can couple that with income and likelihood to spend.
When you pull that kind of data from email or even from web browsing, you don't get the kind of depth that you can get from a trained model.
There's models with all your habits and preferences, they're worth serious money. And that's why Microsoft is pushing so hard to make sure you log in with a online account.
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Since Recall is constantly watching what you do, is it plausible that it could summarize and quantify for an employer how much work is being done on the machine during work hours?
Or not being done. Recall absolutely will not take into account how many "run & gun" hallway meetings you will have for a simple example, let alone researching an issue on your phone while you shit.
Plenty of productivity & engagement measurement tools already exist anyhow.
From: [email protected]
Subject: [ACTION REQUIRED] Work Policy Violation
Dear Wayge Slavei,
Your working performance has been reviewed, and you have been found to be in violation of Bigcorpo workplace policies. As per your contract, you are required to take a 30-minute break for lunch and entitled two additional 15-minute breaks to use at your discretion.
As identified to our policy review process, you have multiple periods of inactivity throughout the work week, including:
- 42 to 59 minutes of inactivity during Wednesdays at 2 PM
- 27 to 56 minutes of inactivity every day from 12:30 to 1 PM.
These periods of unsanctioned inactivity are against corporate policy, and you will be required to attend mandatory training, which will take place virtually on Wednesdays, after the company-wide weekly All-Hands Project Alignment meetings from 2 to 3. Continued violations will result in your termination.
Thank you,
Douche Nozzle
My boss didn't need Recall to do that to me a decade ago. He called me out for going offline in our messenger app for an hour after lunch while I was helping another tech sort an emergency for a client from their machine.
I told him that's fine, I'll just let everyone know that I won't be assisting and will show them that email every time anyone asks. He backed off, but not everyone is going to get that lucky to have a complete moron who is going to put dumb shit threats in writing without running it by anyone in legal, HR, or their own boss.
The tendency of the rate of profit to fall is here again. They really do need to squeeze those dollars out
I'm glad I don't use Winbloat
Honestly this might be useful to the home user but everyone is right to be skeptical. The bigger value for the software is corporate surveillance. They will be able to see exactly how much time WFH workers are actually working and will probably want it for exfiltration prevention. The target user might not be able to avoid using it no matter what.
It's 1000%going to be used for corporate surveillance.
Features to do this from other vendors are already in use.
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Another day I'm thankful I don't work for a company that uses microshit anymore
I use Arch Linux... btw
Seriously, the alternatives are there... It's time to take the leap and never look back.
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