It’s a nightmare scenario for Microsoft. The headlining feature of its new Copilot+ PC initiative, which is supposed to drive millions of PC sales over the next couple of years, is under significant fire for being what many say is a major breach of privacy and security on Windows. That feature in question is Windows Recall, a new AI tool designed to remember everything you do on Windows. The feature that we never asked and never wanted it.

Microsoft, has done a lot to degrade the Windows user experience over the last few years. Everything from obtrusive advertisements to full-screen popups, ignoring app defaults, forcing a Microsoft Account, and more have eroded the trust relationship between Windows users and Microsoft.

It’s no surprise that users are already assuming that Microsoft will eventually end up collecting that data and using it to shape advertisements for you. That really would be a huge invasion of privacy, and people fully expect Microsoft to do it, and it’s those bad Windows practices that have led people to this conclusion.

  • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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    3 months ago

    You know what would be a nice thing to put into windows?

    A fucking decent way to search for files.

    Also, grep and tail, as implemented in Linux. It’s 2024 and there’s no native equivalent to tail -f *.log. How embarrassing.

    • retrospectology@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      You can do a commandline “dir /s *.log” to search an entire directory it works better than the normal file search generally. Unless I misunderstand what you’re asking.

      • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
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        3 months ago

        -f follows the file so you can see updates as they come in to the bottom of the file. I wasn’t aware this worked with globs, but that’s neat.

        Is that what /s does? I haven’t used Windows in years.

        • retrospectology@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Oh, perhaps not. I may’ve just understood how you’re using the search. /s is just a straight search if the directory, I don’t know that it can be used to generate dynamic results like that. Go figure.

  • PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca
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    3 months ago

    I figured on my gaming and VR rig that I’d begrudgingly upgrade it to W11 when W10 stopped receiving security updates and support but at this point the recall feature (which will be used to train LLMs regardless of what Microsoft promises or guarantees) has ensured that I never install that kind of spyware as an operating system.

    I’d rather spend forever troubleshooting and getting my Valve Index to work with Ubuntu than deal with a giant backdoor.

  • dmtalon@infosec.pub
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    3 months ago

    Ya, a PR nightmare for the next 15 minutes until the next unbelievable thing comes along and the ADD nature of people forgets windows is watching everything they do.

    • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      That’s usually what I think too, but after watching how Twitter’s gone to shit since the two big user departures, I think this could legitimately affect Microsoft’s bottom line.

      • helenslunch@feddit.nl
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        3 months ago

        Twitter is a great example of the exact opposite being true. Are people upset? Absolutely. Did they leave the platform? Nope. Maybe a small percentage.

        • BroBot9000@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          It’s X.

          Stop deadnaming X.

          Anyone still clinging to the remnants of its former existence, please close your account. Stop kidding yourself.

          • AlligatorBlizzard@sh.itjust.works
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            3 months ago

            I’ll stop deadnaming Twitter when Musk stops deadnaming his trans daughter.

            And for the record, I’ve never used Twitter. It’s always kinda sucked. Now it really sucks.

            • BroBot9000@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              Musk is a complete shithead and that’s not gonna happen.

              Calling it Twitter is only going to accommodate the people that refuse to get off that nazi network.

              Cause you know Musk gets off on the hate of people still calling it Twitter, exactly because how he treats deadnaming.