Windows feature that screenshots everything labeled a security “disaster”

Don’t worry, DRM-ed content isn’t recorded, so big companies’ IP is protected.

Make Mario my desktop background and stay protected forever by the holy power of Nintendo's lawyers.
- Can you add a banknote or EURion symbol somewhere to dissuade image-processing software?
- Kirbo will step in with Luigi with a cross.
If the data stays on a local device why is drm protection even necessary 🤔
- because you're not "allowed" (in some places you are) to copy stuff you paid for.
Always keep Netflix open and playing to stay safe?
- I think only the player is blocked, and would be shown in the screenshots as a black rectangle

Source: DUH!!!!

Another study:
- Peer review

Imagine trying to use Wireshark on windows to debug or look at some service.

Just an avalanche of packets going to 20 different domains on idle.

No, no. You see, Recall runs locally. It's "edge computing". Which would imply to me that it runs on my router...? Anyway, it's not the cloud, it's edge and AI and surely super cyber, too (whatever that means). My point is, I could give you many more buzzwords, so don't worry. You won't need Wireshark ever again, just ask the AI if your network is secured. 👍

I just installed Nobara today so I could finally rid myself of Windows hell and it’s been amazing.

Is that a linux distro?
- Nobara is a Fedora distro(essentially backed by IBM) by Glorious Eggroll (developer who made Proton GE) designed to be more gaming user oriented, as many of its preincluded configs and applications were tailored to gamers.
- It is, a gaming focused Fedora distro to be exact.
Lol I read that as Norton at first!
- I just installed Norton Anti-Virus Suite and it's been amazing. I haven't been able to use my computer since!
- Norton OS. It's just full of trials to their software.
- Oh god why lmao. NortonOS™️
I want to do the same, but I'm on the fence between Nobara and Bazzite.
- Bazzite looks like it’s way more customizable and expanded. I might actually dual boot it out of curiosity.

Kinda funny, not too long ago it was a fun mental exercise if you were paying attention to the tech industry to try to think of the ways in which Google or MS could fall.

Now, AFAICT, neither are falling any time soon, but there certainly seems to be a shift in how they're perceived and how their brand sits in the market (where even so I'm still probably in a bubble on this).

But I'm not sure how predictable it would have been that both would look silly stumbling for AI dominance.

And, yea, I'm chalking recall up to the AI race as it seems like a grab for training data to me, and IIRC there were some clues around that this could be true.

Microsoft has become a weird one. On the side of things like GitHub and VSCode, they’ve done really well and have fostered amazing tools. I have friends that work on the developer side of things there and love it. But then you look at Windows and it’s a damn abomination. It’s easily one of the most anti-consumer pieces of software in existence.

Jesus Christ. All these requirements for something most people didn't ask for:

System requirements for Recall

Your PC needs the following minimum system requirements for Recall:

A Copilot+ PC

16 GB RAM

8 logical processors

256 GB storage capacity

    To enable Recall, you’ll need at least 50 GB of storage space free

    Saving screenshots automatically pauses once the device has less than 25 GB of storage space

Sounds like the way around this is to make swap space take up the drive up to 24 GB. Then trim the swap space as you need it.

I know it says "to enable" but let's be real here. It's going to be a placebo switch.
- Every update :
  
  "Let's get Recall set up for you!!!!" <microscopic cancel button>
- I'm pretty sure Windows doesn't have fixed-size swap. It uses pagefiles.
  
  Edit: apparently pagefiles can be given a static size as well.
At least hopefully companies will stop selling laptops with 8Gb of soldered ram.
That's a quite normal PC right? Not that I want it though lol good heavens.

When I think about it my daily only have 4 cores, oh no cant use it (I'm on Linux too, so sad ).

Or am I missing something with "copilot pc", does it have to have som special hardware? Asking out of morbid curiosity.
- Yeah, it has to have certain specific types of CPU. They're making this a requirement for all Windows 11 machines if you want to keep receiving security updates. It's going to create a mountain of e-waste.
- They're not amazing specs. All but the most budget of PCs sold in 2024 would have those specs.
  
  It's notable as a required minimum though. There's an implication (not necessarily true) that at some times this feature may require a significant portion of those resources.
  
  Like if your browser was burning away on 8 cores using 16g of RAM you'd notice.
Wait for them to find a way that everyone will run out and buy 1k+ laptops now. Disregarding privacy, most people only need Chromebooks nowadays.
I’ll just stick with my 4-core cpu then… Edit: is logical both core and threads?
- Yes. A CPU has both physical cores and logical threads. These are both considered logical CPUs.
  
  For example, if you ran cat /proc/cpuinfo on Linux you would see something like this (First processor is processor 0)
  
  processor : 23
  
  model name : AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12-Core Processor
  
  So your 4 core CPU likely has hyperthreading and would meet the requirements for Microsoft recall

So Windows 11 has a built-in keylogger!

If only that. This is much more invasive

If you’re faced with the tradeoff between security and another priority, your answer is clear: Do security. In some cases, this will mean prioritizing security above other things we do, such as releasing new features or providing ongoing support for legacy systems. This is key to advancing both our platform quality and capability such that we can protect the digital estates of our customers and build a safer world for all.

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, 03 May 2024

You keep using that word... I do not think it means what you think it means.

Who even wants this? What good is it? I see no use case.

People keep years worth of browser history, until finding something in there becomes harder than searching the web. I see no use for that either, but everyone I've asked insisted they need it. They couldn't really spell out why either
- For me it’s nostalgia and being a sucker for statistics, mostly.
There's a lot of negatives such that I certainly would never want it, but the ability to search everything I've ever looked at would be handy.
- the idea is good, but the reality is it gives anyone the ability to search everything you've ever looked at. If the data exists it can be exploited. for ill or profit
I love the idea of exo brain/second brain where AI helps me keep track of all of my stuff and recall stuff.

But I want to extend myswlf not assimilate to the Microsoft Borg collective lol
- Smart phones pretty much already fulfill this role.
Audit trail in a corporate environment maybe. Assuming non-Microsoft admins have access to that data, it could be a benefit.

Can't imagine the risk it introduces though.

And resource usage overhead.
investors. c.f. enshittification
I would 100% use this. I have ADHD and having the ability to recall something I did days or even weeks ago and query things I did in the past is amazing.

"Hey, I messed up my home assistant automation and can't remember what my old automation was that was working. Can you find it?"

"I had a meeting a month ago with my boss Collen and he showed me a deck about this or that data point. Bring that power point deck up".

The use cases are endless. This is literally a game changer.
- yes, but it should be opt-in not opt-out. It should not exist in my os unless I install it myself.
  
  I could apply this line to so many things microsoft put into windows since xp.
- i can't wait to show it my nuts
- I also have ADHD and would benefit from it just like you said, however, I wouldn’t trust Microsoft with anything related to privacy & security based on their track record. This is going to be the last piece in a huge puzzle that makes me switch to macOS confidently.
If it was local only, and more security focused I would 100%.

My ADHD. brain needs an AI assistant.
Great for mining data to use in the next iteration of ChatGPT

FTFY: Windows ~~feature that screenshots everything labeled~~ is a security “disaster”

no one does enshittification quite like the masters of it at ms

Embrace, Extend, Enshittify I guess it is nowadays.
- don't forget de-extend

I miss when Microsoft was just evil and greedy and not stupid.

Is it stupid? I doubt MS cares about the absolutely miniscule amount of people who will care enough to complain about this. Those people would probably just turn the feature off, or use a different OS, anyway. Catering to that audience isn't something MS cares about.

The average user won't do a thing. MS gets to outsource the computational work of all this spying to their users and then hoover up the data at the end. Microsoft stands to gain a lot from this in the markets where it will be allowed to fly.

Microsoft claims it's offline, but how sure can we be? I smell what the rock is cooking.

Even if it was 100% offline. For how long? Microsoft can change that with a patch at any time. Suddenly all your personal files are being fed into GPT with no consent.
- No more windows for me. I've been back and forth with windows 11 and Linux but been on Linux for awhile. Last windows I used full time was 7
Doesn't matter. If your PC is ever compromised, that feature is a one stop shop for stealing everything you have ever done on your computer.
- Bye bye windows
it's a penis in the door 🚪
It's using a snapdragon elite specific chip that can handle the AI offline.

While we don't yet know if it can be a hackers wet dream, we do know that there are use cases for it
- Yes I can agree there can be positive uses for AI, but I don't really see any transparency from current AI companies to trust them.

I mean who is surprised at this point?

That's the problem. They keep pushing this shit until people get desensitized and see it as "normal." We absolutely need to shout and rant about this ridiculous crap, everytime.

How many screenshots of security "disasters" does a person really need?

I hate this feature but if that UI is real it's beautiful

It's not, it just a marketing image.
Say what you will about Microsoft and Win11 but their 3D animated trailers and marketing images look amazing
- There's a gif at the bottom of the article. Looks similar to any video scrubbing interface.

Microsoft: trust us bro!

How does this make Microsoft money? What's their path to selling the result of this feature?

Probably targeted ads, since they claim the data doesn't leave the device, they get the AI to figure out what type of ads to show.
- This. The answer is always ads.
You need to drop big money for the new PCs that can run this crap... Plus you can bet they'll mine your data and sell you off like a chubby prostitute from the 1800s
- This, they are getting kickbacks from laptop OEMs because people will now need to buy expensive computers again. They were stagnating there for a while finding a way to charge people alot who only need a PC for basic tasks, and now they will be buying a laptop basically the same price as a entry/mid gaming laptop. Now you cannot use price to say "oh windows laptops are cheaper than macs". That's out the door. As I said above though, disregarding privacy, Chromebooks are what most people only need for their day to day tasks, and arm based ones last super long on a single charge.

No shit.

JFC

How different is this vs the previous feature which was their version of apples Time Machine?

This isn’t file backup. This takes a screenshot every few minutes, OCRs it, and stores all that in an unencrypted SQLite file in your user folder for anyone to grab.

Basically anything on your screen is recorded and stored, theoretically forever.
- What use is it if it its not backup?

Unfortunatly had to upgrade to windows11 thank god for tiny11, winutil, MAS, and virtualbox.

If you don't need winapps/battery life start looking into Linux
- And for battery life, see if you can find any info on what others have got with your machine. I've got anything from a fair bit better, to the same, to an absolute catastrophe.
- Ohh i only run windows in a vm. Am loving the linux propaganda this might finally be the year of the linux desktop.

Set furry porn as your desktop.

no don't do this
- That will punish those who violate your privacy.

How has it taken them this long to publish the story? Real frontline tech journos

As a non-Windows-user I see that as a good thing. LLMs are not going away - but that kind of nonsense at least will make sure all PCs will eventually have cheap and reasonably fast AI acceleration. Which is required for killing off centrally hosted LLMs (plus nvidias cash grabbing)

Hahahahahahahahahaha. Just like crypto obsesion gave us cheap crypto chips in all personal computers? Get real dude, this is just a way for them to steal even more data from people. Nothing good will come from this. Quite the oposite, we will see yet another price increase in hardware because all AI dumbasses will hoard them yet again. Don't forget these are the same morons that were pushing for cryptos and nfcs hahaha. These are people who believe in magic free money, too bad they sometimes get it because our society is built by removed. I really can't stand people looking for a possitive in this dissaster ...
The NPUs are good, provided that they can be used the same way dedicated GPUs are used: By 3rd party applications to accelerate certain intensive tasks when you demand them.

However, shoehorning AI into the OS itself definitely screams buzzwords. AI and OS's are polar opposites: You want an OS to be fast, predictable, and reliable. AI is currently slow, extremely unpredictable, and hallucinatory (i.e. unreliable).