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Giving Windows total recall is a privacy minefield (www.theregister.com)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/technology

84 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Microsoft's Windows Recall feature is attracting controversy before even venturing out of preview.

Microsoft said in its FAQs that its snapshotting feature will vacuum up sensitive information: "Recall does not perform content moderation. It will not hide information such as passwords or financial account numbers. That data may be in snapshots stored on your device, especially when sites do not follow standard internet protocols like cloaking password entry."

Mozilla's Chief Product Officer Steve Teixeira told The Register: "Mozilla is concerned about Windows Recall. From a browser perspective, some data should be saved, and some shouldn't.

Jake Moore, Global Cybersecurity Advisor at ESET, noted that while the feature is not on by default, its use "opens up another avenue for criminals to attack."

Moore warned that "users should be mindful of allowing any content to be analysed by AI algorithms for a better experience."

Cybersecurity expert Kevin Beaumont was scathing in his assessment of the technology, writing: "In essence, a keylogger is being baked into Windows as a feature."

AI expert Gary Marcus was blunter: "F^ck that. I don't want my computer to spy on everything I ever do."

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Microsoft's bread and butter has been selling and servicing to businesses.

So with that in mind, the hell are they thinking? Windows 10 end of life guarantees that businesses specifically will have to switch. Then the next option in line is one that will by default vacuum up all your proprietary information to feed into an AI, effectively "copyright laundering" it?.

Even if there's ways to deactivate the feature, the non-tech savvy managers will just go off of the headlines and the tech savvy ones will recognize the security risk. And government/healthcare computer might just fork Linux into a non-open source version.

Ironically it feels like they're focusing too much on consumers (on extorting them) and shooting themselves in the foot for their business clientele.