Set up a new pc for someone today. Turned off an the OneDrive backup options. Rebooted and copied their files from a USB to sata adapter. They turned the backup settings back on again!
Can’t trust Microsoft.
Windows Recall is secretly installed on non-Copilot+PCs (Privacy Nightmare)
Submitted 5 weeks ago by trespasser69@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/sfZs5sn15p0
Comments
I_Miss_Daniel@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
henfredemars@infosec.pub 5 weeks ago
Yep. I’ve set up Windows a few times recently, and they don’t give even the slightest consideration for your settings. Few days later, they changed right back.
They will be configured to benefit Microsoft first. Maybe not immediately. But it sounds like a losing game.
MIDItheKID@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
You need to make a Powershell script or batch that uninstalls/turns off the feature and then make a scheduled task that runs the ps1/bat at login.
Its insane that this is what you have to do to keep this shit off your system, but it’s effective.
I had to do this with New Outlook because it kept reinstalling after Windows updates.
ogmios@sh.itjust.works 5 weeks ago
They “trust me” dumb fucks
May not have been Gates that said it, but it embodies an attitude which appears prevalent throughout big business.
refurbishedrefurbisher@lemmy.sdf.org 5 weeks ago
There’s Windows 11 IoT LTSC if you really need Windows, but Microsoft is going to continue to fuck its users, and I don’t know why people in the know would choose to continue to use an OS that’s actively working against them when non-corporate alternatives exists (Linux or for the more niche people, BSD, Haiku, Redox)
octopus_ink@lemmy.ml 5 weeks ago
Can’t trust Microsoft.
Always has been.
helenslunch@feddit.nl 5 weeks ago
It really hasn’t though. MS used to make money selling Windows and other software licenses for shit that you owned. Back in the day before personal data was The New Oil.
Solemarc@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
“You can turn it off”, “it’s an optional feature”, they didn’t even last a year! What ever happened to slowly boiling the frog?
zipzoopaboop@lemmynsfw.com 5 weeks ago
The frog is a captive audience
M0oP0o@mander.xyz 5 weeks ago
“Slowly” is relative. Also remember that windows 10 was the last windows you would need to ever buy? (To be fair that is more true then Microsoft would like these days)
helenslunch@feddit.nl 5 weeks ago
What do you think it would cost MS to sell a version of Windows that’s just…an operating system, and not an ad platform? Like Windows XP? Or maybe Windows 10 on day 1?
Crozekiel@lemmy.zip 5 weeks ago
Windows 10 on day 1 was still ‘calling home’ and recommending candy crush in the start menu as I recall. I had to dig into the registry to gut the windows store from it entirely to get windows 10 to act how i want an OS to act. Windows 7 was the last good windows IMO.
zipzoopaboop@lemmynsfw.com 5 weeks ago
I distinctly remember win 10 ignored every single setting I chose in oobe and went to default
Asafum@feddit.nl 5 weeks ago
There is no amount that could answer that because the Ad profit is on top of the already existing product. It would always be viewed as a “loss.”
Not that they’re losing on the cost of operations and development of the OS, but because the ad revenue is in addition to the product…
Greed fucking greed fucking greed. Greed turtles all the way down…
RmDebArc_5@sh.itjust.works 5 weeks ago
But think of the shareholders. They would loose so much money they would probably have to sell their third yacht!
kent_eh@lemmy.ca 5 weeks ago
But think of the shareholders
I have many thoughts of the shareholders.
Most of those thoughts are quite violent.
tofubl@discuss.tchncs.de 5 weeks ago
I would totally do that. Only problem is that the third yacht really is my favourite, so I’m gonna pass if that’s okay. Thanks!
helenslunch@feddit.nl 5 weeks ago
I mean they would have to charge enough to make it financially viable. Maybe no one else would buy it but me…
r_deckard@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Last time I bought a Win 10 Pro DVD to install on a customer’s machine, it was AUD$195.00. And I still had to use powershell to de-provision some of the bullshit. Better than the Home version (AUD$165.00), at least I can use GPEDIT to disable some “features”.
Of course, a Windows licence on a pre-built Dell or HP would be a lot less.
rottingleaf@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
You can’t ungrind ground meat back.
While using Linux with Mate is perfectly possible
helenslunch@feddit.nl 5 weeks ago
Of course you can.
Linux is great if you’re a software developer.
r_deckard@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
But you can feed a scrambled egg back to a chicken.
tibi@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
There is the LTSC version (not sure if 11 is released yet, but 10 definitely is) which is basically debloated windows. Made by Microsoft, and targeted towards embedded devices.
UpperBroccoli@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 weeks ago
(re)Ditched Windows on my PC a while ago, still have to use Windows at work. Just checked my work laptop running Windows 11 (standard laptop, not a “Copilot+PC”) - sure enough, that Recall shit is installed and active. Disabled it, and made a post in our main company Teams channel with screenshots. Will be interesting to see if there are any reactions to this.
To find out if it is active in Windows 11, open up ‘cmd’ and use: (typing this from memory, hope it is correct)
dism /online /get-featureinfo /featurename:Recallto disable it, you need a ‘cmd’ instance with admin rights:
dism /online /disable-feature /featurename:Recalltrespasser69@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
It will be re-enabled after update : )
MIDItheKID@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Mentioned this in another comment. Take that second dism line, and put it in a batch script and make it a scheduled task that runs at login. Or use a Powershell script to make it a little smarter - check if it’s enabled first and then disable it if it is.
Modern problems require modern solutions.
LunarLoony@lemmy.sdf.org 5 weeks ago
Any IT admins in the audience: this is what remediation scripts were made for
Railcar8095@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
My company blocks screenshots (luckily we don’t have high definition cameras in or pocket at all times, else that would seem stupid) so I’m wondering what they will do if those are user accessible.
Anti_Iridium@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
I’m going to check at my work tomorrow too. I’m gonna be quite unhappy if I find it.
verdigris@lemmy.ml 5 weeks ago
Switched back to Linux this week and I couldn’t be happier.
rottingleaf@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Upgraded*
Oha@lemmy.ohaa.xyz 5 weeks ago
Wait! The only selling point of those “AI” PCs runs on non “AI” pcs?
JordanZ@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Not enough AI PC sales. They need to push it out anyway. Consume all the CPU and power they can and then market AI PC’s as a way to improve performance and lower your power bill.
Coldgoron@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Saw this bullshit coming, already got a linux mint dual boot setup on my work pc.
PSA: If you have a bigger usb formatted to the ntfs file system, consider switching it to exfat file system when working with linux. I had a hard freeze up and couldn’t get my files off for a bit, and this what I suspect was the issue.
eronth@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
What version of Linux did you go with?
Coldgoron@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Linux Mint 22 Cinnamon
rottingleaf@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Why do people still use that legacy proprietary malware-ridden morally obsolete operating system?
ReadyUser31@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Why do you think they do? Logically think it through.
Market sharen and incumbent advantage. Ease of adoption (or appearance of). Ubiquity and lack of need to retain. Predatory behaviour by MS.
Unless you actually consider the real reasons why Windows is so widespread you’ll never make a dent in it.
raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Ease of adoption (or appearance of)
Thank you for acknowledging that point. Because since Win7 or so, Almost all major Linux distributions are shitloads easier to learn that any windows environment, no matter how unfamiliar you are with Linux. Basically, all major desktop environments behave like an optimized WinXP desktop.
trespasser69@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Normies doesn’t care. Instead they watch brainrot content on TikTok
GhiLA@sh.itjust.works 5 weeks ago
(and most don’t have desktops or laptops to start with)
catloaf@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
On Windows? You sure about that?
style99@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
-
It came with the machine.
-
There are a few things that still don’t quite work as good in Linux.
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rustyricotta@lemmy.ml 5 weeks ago
For me personally, VR is the last thing holding me back. Hopefully that changes soon though. My laptop has already been Windows-free for a while.
raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
let me be the one to say: the only people who “need” VR are those earning their money with selling VR products. No one else in the whole wide world actually needs VR.
TheLastOfHisName@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
I’ve been running Pop!_OS with the Cinnamon desktop environment on my machine at home for the past 3 months. I’m very impressed with the out-of-the-box experience. All my games run in Steam or Lutris.
Fuck Microsoft.
polle@feddit.org 5 weeks ago
For me the same, but with kubuntu. Linux is really ready to be used as a desktop.
Lenny@lemmy.zip 5 weeks ago
I made this prediction before kind of joking, but I feel like it could still end up this way, where in the near future we’ll all be installing a FOSS AI after a fresh install whose sole job is to target the corpo AI’s and continuously cripple them.
Sabata11792@ani.social 5 weeks ago
The guys using FOSS Ai would be the same guys using an operating system without an hostile Ai built in.
beefbot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 weeks ago
FWIW I was worried this might be on W10 (hey, they might try it) so I tried the >dism commands found earlier in this thread (thanks btw!) & got “Feature name Recall is unknown”.
Safe for now
lud@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
Keep in mind that this doesn’t necessarily mean that recall itself is actually doing recall stuff or even running a process (I haven’t checked if it does but not necessarily) like it would on a copilot laptop.
It is however very stupid that you can’t uninstall recall without messing up the file Explorer. My guess is that it’s a bug or some weird dependency needed with explorer.exe that handles the file explorer and a bunch of other stuff like the desktop and taskbar. It could also be spying but this seems like a stupidly obvious way to do it if they wanted too.
muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
This is why win10 in a vm
moon@lemmy.cafe 5 weeks ago
I tried and couldn’t find it on my system. I run Linux btw.
PanArab@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
Even on Pro or Enterprise editions? I can’t imagine businesses tolerating this never mind governments.
cyberwolfie@lemmy.ml 5 weeks ago
Did not show up on my work laptop running Win 11.
hightrix@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Didn’t show up on my win11 pro desktop pc.
cestvrai@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
Oh no! Anyways…
homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
BOGU!
trespasser69@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Windows Recall today: Your data is private and stays on local machine.
Recall after 2 years: We may use your data to train our AI models, improve our services and personalize your experince.
Railcar8095@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
Best part? It’s using your hardware and electricity to train the models.
unrelatedkeg@lemmy.sdf.org 5 weeks ago
In a few years they’ll charge you monthly for the priviledge of using/knowing what it collected on you.
Sabata11792@ani.social 5 weeks ago
Recall after 2 years: Your personalized ads are generated on device based on preferences detected by Recall and our partners. Recall shares these preferences with Microsoft and our 23,671.5 partners and 16 nation-state partners around the world to better serve you <3.
r_deckard@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Pi-hole can block microsoft telemetry domains, just need to keep the blocklists up to date, and flush the Recall cache every day.
r4venw@sh.itjust.works 5 weeks ago
I wonder who the 0.5 partner is…
Vince@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Interesting way to put it. The first thing it made me think is that if they did the 2nd part entirely within your PC, would it be ok privacy-wise, and would the consumers be ok with it?
I haven’t looked into the current iterations options, but I think I still want the option to turn it off. Personally I’m less concerned with privacy and more concerned with it using up my computers resources.
voracitude@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Even if all the processing remained on my devices, I still wouldn’t want or trust it. Microsoft could change that policy at any time, claim something like my logging in to my local account constituted agreeing to their new terms, and expose screenshots of my password manager in an unsecured public data store.
Fuck Windows Recall, and fuck Microsoft generally for being so fucking awful to their customers but mainly fuck them for forcing me to finally make good on my threat to switch to Linux. I’ve been using Windows for over thirty years and switching off their spyware for ten, but this is the final straw.
gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 5 weeks ago
No, there’s a bigger context that you’re not considering: enterprise IT orgs in privacy-sensitive/confidential domains.
This whole feature is an absolute non-starter in biotech, defense, finance, and a bunch of other industries. It’s an infosec nightmare. Legal teams will categorically refuse to allow W11 to be installed simply due to the legal jeopardy it would put their own orgs in, since it implicitly trusts MS with who the fuck knows how much data exactly.
I continue to be shocked and baffled that MS isn’t taking their stance on this product as an “always-on” thing back to the drawing board.
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Nah. Even if it’s local, I’ll burn my CPU cycles on what I want to, thanks. That’s like installing a bitcoin miner in your PC and claiming, “But it only runs in the background.” Fuck off and buy your own hardware, Microsoft.
nyan@lemmy.cafe 5 weeks ago
Even if the storage were strictly local, there would still be some privacy concerns. Hackers can’t steal data that isn’t there.
SexualPolytope@lemmy.sdf.org 5 weeks ago
At that point, you’re just paying for training Microsoft’s AI.
helenslunch@feddit.nl 5 weeks ago
I mean Chrome works exactly like that now so, yes?
Depends on how you define “okay”. Do people understand how it works, and want it to work that way? Absolutely not. Will they do absolutely anything to change it? Also no.