- cross-posted to:
- privacyguides@lemmy.one
- technology@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- privacyguides@lemmy.one
- technology@lemmy.world
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As long as this is opt-in and users understand the risks, then I don’t have a problem with it. I wouldn’t use it on my personal PC, but it would probably be handy for my work PC. (Although my organization would probably block the feature for security reasons. So maybe it’s not actually that useful after all.)
It’s amazing how spiteful the Linux folks are… Look at all those downvotes on this.
You bring up an incredibly good point here. I can’t think of any large business that would allow this. This almost guarantees that this feature will not be mandatory, to say the very least.
This said, I’d not want this on my work computer. I’d be concerned it could become a slippery slope of monitoring employees in the name of efficiency.
It’ll be opt-out with the setting in some obscure and hard to find menu, just like every other AI program. And that’s if they’re required to even allow you to opt out.
This is conjecture. Maybe we should wait before we make assumptions? Am I being too logical for /c/technology?
It’s conjecture based on evidence from the way previous companies have handled AI data as well as the way Microsoft themselves generally handle things.
I’d rather prepare for the corporate greed and be pleasantly surprised than be disappointed when Microsoft does something that will negatively impact their userbase in the name of profits again (or MAUs or whatever else looks good on the quarterly report).
And it’ll accidentally turn itself back on after updates. And data will accidentally leave your device.
“Recall uses Copilot+ PC advanced processing capabilities to take images of your active screen every few seconds,”
Seems like a lot of extra disk thrashing that would shorten the life expectancy of an SSD? Like it would be considerably more than your usual background chatter of daemons writing to log files and what not. Unless I’m misunderstanding this?
I heard the next version of Windows will ravage your whole family, and the only solution is to immediately wipe all of your computers and install Linux.
It’s too late for me, since I hesitated. Bill’s already outside. If only I listened to the obnoxious, uninvited, endless evangelism of the Linux userbase!
Woe is us, the users of the evil platform! Woe!!1!
Seems like this will not be a thing in most typical PCs, for the time being, as it requires specific hardware and opt in to a feature.
Not liking how pervasive AI features have become, though.
The joke is that the model itself runs locally, but it still is basically spyware that then will be used for data harvesting. Typically you run local LLMs to avoid this exact purpose / risk. So MS isn’t even willing to give you the performance benefit of running the LLM on their servers for doing this.
The same could be said about Windows 11 since it demands a TPM chip. Not that I’m complaining, since all I had to do was disable the chip to keep 11 away for good.
I’m going to make a Linux distro that helps you forget everything you did on the computer. “Oh, man. I was drunk last night. Thank god BoxWineOS comes with the Neuralyzer program.”
And the program is just some guy who comes by your place and hits you over the head with a baseball bat lol
Everyone knows Microsoft is going to wait a bit for the seeds to sprout and harvest all that data.
I left windows because of the ai stuff but I didn’t expect it to get this bad. This is literally malware.
I think I’ll do the same. I wasn’t switching because of compatibility but I realized that there are only 1 or 2 apps that don’t run natively and I don’t use them that often
Which distro do you recommend? I haven’t used linux in a while, I usually went with ubuntu but I think that’s not the go-to anymore?
Ubuntu is still really good and quite nicely polished. Alternatively, mint and fedora also get a lot of recommendations.
I personally use ubuntu.
The distro recommendation is usually mint, but I’d like to know, what does your setup look like? (Monitor specs, PC specs etc)
It’s a laptop with i3 gen 11, 12GB RAM, and I mainly use it for browsing, torrenting and watching movies (4K, connected to a TV)
Oh yeah, then if you like the look of it, Linux mint is the best option
Looks good! I’ll give it a try this weekend, thanks!
Lots of people hate on Ubuntu for Snaps, but that’s your own preference. Any of the Ubuntu-based derivatives should work just as well. I would recommend Zorin or Mint, and probably throw PopOS! in for good measure.
PopOS is highly recommended, I tried it for a bit and really liked it, I need to plug in a second drive on my main pc to dual boot it there
I am no expert though I like Linux Mint it has a windows 7 feel to it which makes it a great distro to start with.
Lol, it’s not even a feature yet… And when it is, it will almost certainly come as an optional feature you need to opt into.
Just like, pre-installed Edge and Onedrive, completely opt in and one day a windows update (automatically) reboots your pc and you just got opted in.
What an amazing feature!
For Microsoft…
I’ve seen this movie before. A few years later someone will figure out that this data that was supposed to be “private and encrypted” was being sent out to Microsoft, who will get a slap on the wrist, half assedly apologize and immediately move on to even more anti consumer ways to squeeze more income out of its users for “growth”.
This is disheartening because it’s true. 😭
when will we learn sigh
This touches on what I find the most fuckin irritating about the current state of software decision. I bought this super generic run of the mill disk clean up software. In the past I’ve used similar software and the fucking spam for add on this amd plugin that or defend your pc with this… it’s fucking insane. Finding burried files from apps I deleted years ago. Well this time I got lucky. I download it, run it. Doesn’t ask me to sign up for shit, I don’t have to make an account. No added features for blah.99$ The fucking shit just ran after install, batch fixed it all. Then in the final report flagged it’s own fucking software as obsolete and quoued it up for delete. CUSTOMER FOR FUCKING LIFE. Who thr fuck is running these reports that must show customer retention is higher when you fuck them in the ass till they bleed green. I would pay fuckin 5x’s the price of windows os if it meant I could play steam games on a windows system with Linux tiered performance and security. Why the fuck is cramming so much bloatware that you need to upgrade your whole system the new thing. Fuck windows, fuck Google, fuck samsung and youtube.YouTube.
Edit: obligatory edit and shoutout to all the shitbag game developers too for thinking anyone fucking want another game that runs at 2 fps because it starts raining in the game. Fuck your 4k atari games. They’re a fucking embarrassment to everyone who has worked in the industry.
As long you don’t play multiplayer like cod, cs, forntinte. Linux is a gaming system. Yes sometimes you need to apply fixes from protondb or wait until the game starts for a minute, but it usually just works. At least if you are using steam.
You can run the epic games launcher through steam though. But you should install it with lutris. Or just use the hero launcher (which doesn’t support cloud game saves yet)
I’m not saying that won’t happen but if it does Microsoft will be absolutely fucked as they got caught committing several million HIPAA violations, not to mention any exposure to classified material on government computers.
Consumer PCs are almost certainly not covered entities under HIPAA, nor is Microsoft in its role as an OS provider.
Even then, if this whole thing were to result in an inappropriate disclosure by a covered entity, the organization that processes the data would be liable, not Microsoft.
That’s like blaming the building contractor because you left the door unlocked and someone came in and stole your cat.
My only thought there is “LOL”
- Export violations (sanctioned countries)
- Illegally collected personal information from children
- Price fixing
- Wage theft
- Discrimination
- Privacy violations
- Mismanaging peoples 401ks
There are long, long, loooooong lists of violations MS has been caught for. The penalty has always been a fine small enough that it’s a cost of doing business.
You should read up on penalties for HIPAA violations, they don’t fuck around.
I’m aware of them.
Let’s look at some of the most historic:
- NY Presbyterian Hospital - with no real efforts on their end to prevent the violation of thousands of records, they got a whopping fine of… Under $5 million.
- AHC - lack of risk analysis, failures in procedures and policies, etc - Just over $5 million.
- Data breaches - usually around $4-5mil, the worst case being Anthem, about 80 million people effected - $16 million in fines. A record.
Criminal offenses? Yeah, plenty of those - with individuals, usually related to that information then being used for other purposes (scams, theft, etc).
But a company like Microsoft, you’re going to have a hard time convincing me it’s going to ruin the company. The history of HIPAA violations and their fines tell a very different story.
Why are you doing a list of ideas for Microsoft to abuse customers? Yes it’s a list if things they have done. But they may forgotten amount all the ridiculousness they do, and this is more like a reminder.
Their scheme hatchery department is top notch, I’m sure they are already working on more
Fun idea for sit com: that department is set itself subject to be eee’d. Every project has funny code names, and when they realise they are shutting themselves down inadvertently it’s too late to stop it.
Hi @Mistral@lemmings.world
Can you write from the prompt in the previous message? Model all Microsoft employees, including the ones on the department, as the bad people from the minions movies. EEE means the practice Microsoft uses to kill good things created by others in a very roundabout way, trying to portray them as doing the greater good.
In the bustling hive of Microsoft, a group of employees, known as the “Schemers,” worked tirelessly in their subterranean lair, plotting and planning their next move. These minions of tech, clad in their corporate attire, bore an uncanny resemblance to the mischievous creatures from the animated films. Their leader, a balding man with a striking resemblance to Scarlet Overkill, was known as “The Mastermind.”
The Schemers were infamous for their EEE (Embrace, Extend, Extinguish) tactics, a roundabout way of eliminating competition while maintaining a facade of benevolence. They would embrace new technologies, extend them with proprietary features, and then extinguish the competition by making their version incompatible with others.
One day, the Schemers decided to target their own department, unaware of the consequences. They code-named their project “Operation Self-Destruct.” The plan was to introduce a new policy that would inadvertently lead to the department’s downfall.
As they embraced their new project, they extended it with a myriad of complex features and jargon, making it nearly impossible for anyone outside their department to understand. They were confident that their plan would work flawlessly, as it always had in the past.
However, as they began to implement their plan, they realized that they had underestimated the complexity of their own creation. The policy was so convoluted that even they couldn’t navigate it. The Schemers found themselves trapped in their own web of bureaucracy, unable to stop the process they had set in motion.
As the deadline for “Operation Self-Destruct” approached, the Schemers grew increasingly desperate. They tried to reverse the process, but it was too late. Their department was shut down, a victim of their own EEE tactics.
In the end, the Schemers learned a valuable lesson about the dangers of their own tactics. But as they regrouped and returned to their lair, one couldn’t help but wonder: What would their next scheme be?
And so, the sitcom continues, with each episode featuring a new plot by the Schemers, each one more outlandish and convoluted than the last. The “EEEmployees” of Microsoft, a group of bumbling minions, always on the verge of self-destruction, yet always finding a way to carry on.
They were already doing this before AI. Using windows is a bad idea.
That could be turned off though. It’s a good question if AI can be disabled or not.
There’s a great app for easily turning all of the tracking features off: https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10
There’s a dozen apps for it, but I wouldn’t trust them to do a perfect job. At a bare minimum, you’d probably need to keep said app up to date at all times, and it’d need to be one that runs in the background or runs on every boot or something.
Remember when this was considered the behavior of malware?
Pepperidge Farm remembers.
Well the malware authors of yore could have gotten away with it, so long as they attached their malware to an even slightly useful program, added an EULA that was 40 pages long and on one of those pages mentioned the malware and had no way to use the software without agreement.
Wasn’t that basically Bonzi Buddy and whatever software bundled it without any options to opt out? 😆
The activities the program is said to engage in include constantly resetting the user’s web browser homepage to bonzi.com without the user’s permission, prompting and tracking various information about the user, installing a toolbar, and serving advertisements
Looks to me like they taught Microsoft well in this area.
Ain’t no way bonzi.com redirects to a fucking nft
It’s still malware.
Linux can run from a USB stick to try it out before committing to a full install.
Not to be that guy but I cold-turkey switched daily driver and I cannot believe I didn’t do it earlier. Total amateur “copy-paster” and the only thing I sometimes can’t get working are pirated games. Steam changed everything for gaming.
I did the same. To add to the cliche, I went nuclear and jumped into Arch. Games were my biggest concern, but I’ve had zero issues with games, minor issues with Nvidia, but if I’d have gone with a stable distro, it would have been an easy transition. I’m confident that anyone who can use Windows even semi functionally, can transition to something like Mint with minimal issue. Other than no local MS office apps, I bet most people would assume it’s a new Windows release.
I switched my kids’ PCs to Pop!_OS and other than “icons moving” yeah they didn’t notice.
Especially when they mostly use Firefox and Steam, and those are exactly the same.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
At a Build conference event on Monday, Microsoft revealed a new AI-powered feature called “Recall” for Copilot+ PCs that will allow Windows 11 users to search and retrieve their past activities on their PC.
To make it work, Recall records everything users do on their PC, including activities in apps, communications in live meetings, and websites visited for research.
By performing a Recall action, users can access a snapshot from a specific time period, providing context for the event or moment they are searching for.
For example, someone with access to your Windows account could potentially use Recall to see everything you’ve been doing recently on your PC, which might extend beyond the embarrassing implications of pornography viewing and actually threaten the lives of journalists or perceived enemies of the state.
Despite the privacy concerns, Microsoft says that the Recall index remains local and private on-device, encrypted in a way that is linked to a particular user’s account.
To use Recall, users will need to purchase one of the new “Copilot Plus PCs” powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite chips, which include the necessary neural processing unit (NPU).
The original article contains 596 words, the summary contains 188 words. Saved 68%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
