New Windows AI feature records everything you’ve done on your PC

I've seen this movie before. They will make it enabled by default and make it difficult to disable. Then 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".

immediately move on to even more anti consumer ways

but they'll keep collecting that data even after the slap on the wrist which will be more like a gentle tap
- fine-no-jail-time = cost of doing business.
- More like a high five from the NSA.
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)
This is disheartening because it's true. 😭
when will we learn sigh
You're assuming at that point being outraged will have any impact, or that people will be allowed to be outraged.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- You'd think so, right?

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? 😆
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 left windows because of the ai stuff but I didn't expect it to get this bad. This is literally malware.

This is finally it for me. I just can’t justify this any longer and will need to dedicate myself to running some flavor of Linux permanently as my daily driver.
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?
- 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.
- Ubuntu is still really good and quite nicely polished. Alternatively, mint and fedora also get a lot of recommendations.
  
  I personally use ubuntu.
- 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.
- The distro recommendation is usually mint, but I'd like to know, what does your setup look like? (Monitor specs, PC specs etc)
- 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
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.

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

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).

Well, I guess I'm keeping my current notebook for the unforseeable future.

Fear not! Eventually you'll be forced to take an update that will bring this blessing to you:

On devices that are not powered by a Snapdragon® X Series processor, installation of a Windows update will be required to run Recall.
Yeah. But they'll likely make Azure Recall running on their own AI hardware. You'll have to opt out (on every windows update) of their ad driven free model that uses your data to target ads, and sell your overall profile on.
Actually, if this is the requirement, then this means our data isn't leaving the device at all (for this purpose) since everything is being run locally.
- Unless there's a "database failure" that would resurface screenshots from your PC on Microsoft's cloud, or anything like that. I mean, its too many lines of code, what if something happened and oops, the local data was uploaded to your Onedrive, my bad, keep using our products, this will never happen again we swear.
  
  The only way to be sure is not having it at all. Remember the CSAM filter Apple wanted to force on iOS? This is as bad as that.
Or you know, you can just not turn it on.
- IF that's an option and IF it don't turn itself on after an update. Given Microsoft's history I wouldn't trust that. They invested way too much in AI to afford making it easy for the user not to use the feature.

I am really liking Linux Mint more and more . . .

SaaS - Surveillance as a Service

Can I just continue to not sign in to a Microsoft account and be good? Seems like it’s all tied to that

The Linux evangelists always jump on this stuff without reading the articles. Do not be alarmed by them. This is currently just a beta feature that Microsoft is still testing.

If Microsoft announces that this is going to be forcibly installed on all versions of Windows, then we can grab our pitchforks. Ideally this would end up being an opt-in feature. If it's an opt-out when they release, again, pitchforks.

For now? Give them feedback if you're worried, otherwise move on with your day and do nothing.
- If Microsoft announces that this is going to be forcibly installed on all versions of Windows, then we can grab our pitchforks
  
  Complaining when it is already released is too late to stop it.
- They didn't ask permission before pushing Copilot, why would they ask permission for this?
- If Microsoft announces that this is going to be forcibly installed on all versions of Windows, then we can grab our pitchforks. Ideally this would end up being an opt-in feature. If it's an opt-out when they release, again, pitchforks.
  
  Well, per Microsoft's website:
  
  On devices that are not powered by a Snapdragon® X Series processor, installation of a Windows update will be required to run Recall.
  
  So it sounds like everyone on Windows 11 will get it via Windows Update eventually
- Yeah I wish I had the time/knowledge to make Linux my main OS but it’s just unlikely to happen. I use my “gaming” PC primarily for work (like 95%), and have way too many programs and files that I don’t want to risk breaking/losing to make a switch. Maybe the next computer I build I’ll make a Linux setup but for now I’m stuck with Windows no matter what

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.

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!

It's never too late! Call Tux and he'll rush over to do battle with Bill.

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.
Will Copilot+ PC experiences come to devices powered by AMD or Intel processors? Yes. We are partnering with Intel and AMD to bring Copilot+ PC experiences to PCs with their processors in the future.

I'd give it a year at most till this comes to desktops.
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.

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.

The thing that annoys me with this kind of thing is that there’s so much tech like this that COULD be really useful if we had absolutely any trust in Microsoft and big tech at all.

Like… data, data collection, ai, and big data could be so useful for general users, but instead of creating useful ui and features for users, they only suck up all our data to build nice charts for advertisers and feed all our data to ai that can help them train their advertising models to try and extract more money from us.

It's not just about trusting Microsoft, but about control over the technology. Users will never have real control over AI technology, it's too valuable and the inner workings are anxiously being kept under wraps by the big techbro companies. It also runs on their computers for the most part, so of course we can't trust what's being done with it, regardless of whether Microsoft has been a good boy or a bad boy recently.
- He who controls the data controls the universe
Yeah, agreed. The dream of AI is it understanding what you want and offering it, or even doing it for you. But this inherently requires a computer system to understand everything about what you want. Perfect for big tech companies that are hungry for your advertising data. This is why we need more open source model projects!

Someone will figure out how to turn it off again in fairly short order (it might be as simple as a mklink to NUL for the storage directory, causing it to send its recordings into the void). What irritates me more is the typical Microsoft misuse of the word "feature".

(I mean, this thing does have some potential uses (imagine being able to see what that elderly relative you provide tech support for actually did when they claim they "did nothing"), but the privacy concerns vastly outweigh them.)

In an enterprise environment I can see it's value, but as a consumer product it has no place.

Everyone knows Microsoft is going to wait a bit for the seeds to sprout and harvest all that data.

"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?

Since everything is being run in a local LLM, most likely this will be some extra RAM usage rather than SSD usage, but that is assuming that they aren't saving these images to file anywhere.

What an amazing feature!

For Microsoft...

It's funny. Security folks say how insecure Windows XP is, and how it becomes compromised within seconds/minutes of having an internet connection. It's like Microsoft took that as a playbook challenge to repeat as an OOTB feature, instead of waiting for malware to do it.

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!

I think Microsoft's ultimate goal is to turn your computer into a locked-down console. Infested with data collection malware. And it won't allow third-party apps ever.

My next computer will be a dual-boot machine. I will use Windows ONLY for gaming. No personal info or activity on that partition at all. And I'll use Linux to get sh*t done.

Steam had been making Linux pretty darn good for gaming too, even for games that are technically Windows only.
Why not your current computer? No time like the present...
- Many people using NVidia cards, and they have issues...
- I like to play games. If it weren't for that, I wouldn't use Windows at all.

So if it's "AI", and it's remembering what I do on my computer, does that mean it's going to hallucinate about what I did on my computer?

"Oh jeez, it's hallucinating, maybe we need to get some of that raw input data to debug it."

No it doesn't. (My PC runs Linux.)

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'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.
- And it'll accidentally turn itself back on after updates. And data will accidentally leave your device.
- This is conjecture. Maybe we should wait before we make assumptions? Am I being too logical for /c/technology?
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.
- The whole thing is going to be run on a local LLM. They don't have to upload that data anywhere for this to work (it will work offline). But considering what they already do, Microsoft is going to have to do a lot to prove that they aren't doing this.