Microsoft’s “Recall” is a Privacy Nightmare

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Luke and Linus respond to Microsoft’s new, invasive “Recall” feature and how the Windows ARM revolution is likely to effect the future of operating systems, especially Linux/ChromeOS.


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[Kennephus]

If we're leaving Windows over privacy concerns, there's ZERO chance Google's OS is the next stop. It's straight to Linux for sure.

[BunkerSquirrel]

Microsoft wasn’t lying when they said Windows 10 was their last OS. Well, for me at least.

[justinpatterson]

I don't need a fuggin co-pilot. This is a solo craft.

[sirenscall]

A de-windowsing your life video similar to the de-google video would absolutely be a banger. I think a lot of us are more than ready to leave windows behind but dont really know where to start.

[EverSpaceTime]

Everyone missed this: Recall = RECord ALL.

[hv]

Recall is a ticking time bomb. I'm waiting for a massive security vulnerability 5 years down the line. The lawsuits to come are going to be insane.

[cfbmoo]

Copilot/Recall makes Windows basically licensed malware at this point. Turned on/off doesn't mean anything since Windows updates have turned on things people turned off without them realizing it right away. Imagine someone breaking in to Copilot and Recall and downloading en mass from every PC that has this enabled on the Internet. It's only a matter of time at this point.

[mr_clean]

Google is THE biggest privacy offender there is, and they are absolutely losing the AI race with Bard. The idea that everyone is going to switch to Google for privacy and AI features is absurd.

[klassicneo]

Microsoft is really challenging us to use Linux, huh.

[stridertakahashi]

Public devices are really gonna be a major problem. Imagine, literally anyone could walk up to a library computer that unintentionally has this feature enabled by default and type the word "password" into the AI and walk out with a fuckin rolodex of peoples private information. Especially for anyone who keeps typing their password in wrong and press the button to reveal it.

Nobody asked for this. Nobody is ever going to use it. The only practical applications of it are almost entirely already covered by the search bar and sort by section in every file manager, program, and web browser history tab.

[JohnCastleSmokeless]

Bear in mind a few other things:

1. OneDrive. Sure, those 'snapshots' will be stored locally -- but if they're synced via OneDrive, _locally won't be the ONLY place they're stored._

2. Today's, 'Optional feature' is next year's 'integral to the OS' framework -- meaning that, just like you can't safely excise Edge today, you won't be able to safely disable or excise Recall tomorrow.

[JordonAM]

"Millions and millions of kids grew up with ChromeOS" yeah and we hated it 😭A lot of us have a lasting hatred for that OS even after we left it behind. There's a low chance me and my friends that grew up with ChromeOS will just willfully agree to go back to it. We'd use another distro before we'd ever use ChromeOS again.

[codesterproductions]

I wonder if Microsoft has purposely been enshitifying their search function to pave way for Recall.

[Russell-hz]

I found personal info being hidden in Win95. The OS said it wasn't there, but if I booted up in DOS I could read the whole damn file in clear text. I had a Police IT Forensic Examiner confirm that the practice still goes on, with registry keys for 3-letter agencies to automagically go in the back door. That's why I've been on Linux for 20 years now. If I want you to know what I'm doing, I'll put it on a billboard.

[alexholker]

The threat isn't just the screenshots, it's the AI in a black box that will be summarising those screenshots. It doesn't matter if the screenshots never leave the computer if a text summary of everything in those screenshots is fair game.

[imkayjaylea]

When someone says "get use to it" when it comes to AI coming to everything, my response is "get hacked".

[kessilrun]

Privacy went out the window a long time ago. They watch us like cattle now. We all willingly bought into it, the moment we adopted Facebook's "check-in" (or as I call it, "Come rob me") feature, and social media (past MySpace) in general, to where we no longer even own our own photos/ media. Now that everyone in the world is an influencer now too your life and opinions are out there even more so now, and so now you're watched by everybody more. Our smart phones are a privacy nightmare: I can talk to my wife about bicycling and see ads about bicycles almost immediately. They may as well just put cameras in our window, Truman Show style. Actually it's scary how much that movie became true...but then again? The same can be said about Idiocracy. It's all by design. Little-by-little, they test the waters, push a new concerning feature, until people are just born into a world where they are constantly monitored and it's normal.

[TheForce_Productions]

I still remember an interview to Bill Gates when he was still at Microsoft saying that in his office he had his webcam blocked with a tape. That fact alone it's a shocking Windows revelation itself.

[Lollllllz]

The Encryption they speak of is just bitlocker being enabled by default. The SQLite Databases Recall stores its stuff in is alledgedly unencrypted.

[cheeseisgross]

My biggest gripe with this feature is that I simply don't need it. I have password managers. I have notes and reminder apps. I just don't see how a bunch of my past screenshots to really benefit me (and not an advertiser).