The PR DISASTER of Microsoft Recall!

Microsoft Build has come and gone, but the new Windows Recall feature has made everyone upset. Some of the reasons are good, others are not. Let's talk about it.

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👇 Sauce:

Chapters:
00:00 Introducing Microsoft Build & Recall
01:58 What is Windows Recall?
03:32 Ensured/Ensuing Backlash
07:13 Actual Recall Details
09:54 "Justified" Outrage
10:47 The NPU Requirement
12:33 Storage Requirement Bump
14:09 Peering Into the Crystal Ball
16:30 Outro

[Trafotin]

I will say this now and I probably should have put emphasis on it: the only proper way to test Recall is to wait for 24H2 and the Snapdragon X Elite machines. The unlocking of Recall to non-NPU devices is interesting and may serve important for later research, but people should wait for the final product for jumping to conclusions.

Microsoft also released additional documentation this morning on the Windows blog about the OOBE experience (which the only source was the incomplete hack and it really isn't clear if they meant for people to see that screen at all). Also notice the bad PR of them letting conspiracy theories swirl for 2 weeks before commenting.

Also, Recall is not an (imminent) privacy concern. What you should be more afraid of is in its default state, Microsoft is able to collect ALL OF THE SAME INFORMATION. The only difference is now there is a screenshot of it they may never see (again, we need to wait for the full version to confirm this). Never mind the fact Recall is arbitrarily locked to NPU machines because Microsoft needs more money. Microsoft does not need Recall AT ALL to see you do your private business on your computer; they have invasive telemetry for that.

I made this video reading about the exploit from Kevin Beaumont as well, but because how limited the scope of Recall's rollout is, it's not known what the impact will be to the Windows ecosystem. Nobody knows, so if you see anyone comment "Recall will make security worse" or "Recall is just fine, " both answers cannot be tested.

[dnoordink]

Microshaft is doing more for the adoption of linux than any other entity.

[TeleviseGuy]

Big companies like Adobe, Microsoft and Google are all under reputational implosion right now because of overreliance on AI, which has many different issues but gives the companies incredible opportunities when it comes to profits. It makes me a bit upset. Now I understand why more and more people are averse of this wave of AI, especially in the computer enthusiast sphere and Linux community.

[ThermalLance-hgrd]

Recall is the straw that broke the camel's back for me. Microsoft is asking for a level of trust they simply have not earned. Well, they surely did not earn mine. I think it's finally time to look toward alternatives.

[FelipeV]

I saw a video of someone using Recall on a VM. It's called "I enabled Windows Recall on an unsupported machine, how creepy is it?" by Youtuber Eric Parker, released 5 days ago. The thing took a sceenshot of his (fake) credit card info, so... pretty fucking creepy is the answer. The SQLite DB is entirely unencrypted, as long as the user is logged-in too. I understand trying to be reasonable and down to earth, but this feature is just plain terrible in every way.

[jamesarthurkimbell]

Sure, my computer will become slower, less consistent, and less secure, but I'll be able to draw squiggles and have the AI turn it into a mountain range

[SatongiFilms]

recall feature is already being tested on virtual machines and it's as bad as you can imagine. @MentalOutlaw did a video 22h ago dissecting it

[rps]

Having the OS taking screenshots every 5 seconds already creeps me out, AI or no AI. I am already beginning to mess around with Linux. As Rob Braxman put it, if 3 letter agencies want to grab some of those, then all they need to do is to grab it when it is not encrypted by snatching it directly from Windows while logged in.

[davidturcotte]

This aged like milk before it was released. It turned into yogurt, which is still bad for the lactose intolerant. People have run recall on Windows + Arm computers. It can be tested. Heck! You know how to spin up a VM. You can spin up an ARM VM and try it out.

They found out it stores OCR data as unencrypted plain text. They found out it doesn't actually require a specialized NPU. It has already been hacked and a tool was developed to extract the data collected by recall. This is a terrible feature.

[JessicaFEREM]

Google is also testing adding a feature called "memories" to ChromeOS, basically the same thing.
right now I don't think you could trust any closed source software written by a publicly traded company.

[courtneymertz]

I think we can all agree that this is once of the most dumbest decisions Microsoft has ever made! I just got a new laptop and one of the first things I wanted to do with it was to install Linux. Seems like I chose a good time to do so! The fact that Microsoft is forcing bitlocker and Ai on everyone made me feel glad that I switched to Fedora before I became a part of that audience.

[qxlf]

i hate AI, AI is one of the worst things or recent times and before. switch to linux if you want a good system, ditch MacOS and Windows. i have yet to see a positive use of AI, i am still convinced its worthless and lazy. change my mind

[cdgonepotatoes]

I understand Regkeys can be used to disable all the crap Microsoft likes to add, but that can't always be the one magic item able to excuse W11's horribleness. I hope countries will see the necessity in significantly increasing their funding towards the Linux foundation after this stunt.

[OneOfThePetes]

Recall has already been hacked. It wasn't difficult.

[HickoryDickory]

Microsoft's specs aside, Recall actually _does _*_not_*_ require_ NPUs to function. Some have successfully enabled the feature on unsupported hardware and it worked as slimely as intended. There is no middle ground here. It's an unacceptable invasion of privacy and Microsoft and all their accomplices should be castigated for it.

[yanndooms]

Well you can say "Look here you can disable and/ or configure it." Sure but as power users, we know that we can do that. How much of the general public will know about this or even understand its safety risks?

[b.h.]

I recommend Eric Parker's video on the topic. It addresses a lot of things mentioned in this video. The main point is how easy it is to get hacked, and it also proves that it doesn't actually need an NPU.

[stephenanthony]

I cant understand what recall is for. Saving the state of my browser? I have plugins and a bookmark manager for that. Saving my files? I have a backup scheme for that. Saving my projects? I HAVE A SAVE BUTTON FOR THAT. What is Recall FOR!?

[pfitz]

Microsoft has nothing more than adware/spyware/malware. So glad we have Linux to migrate to.

[stroodlepup]

what stack do you use for your avatar?