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Recall: Microsoft re-launches ‘privacy nightmare’ AI screenshot tool (www.bbc.com)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Microsoft says it has “listened to feedback” following a privacy row over a new tool which takes regular screenshots of users’ activity.

It was labelled a potential “privacy nightmare” by critics when it was unveiled in May 2024 - prompting the tech giant to postpone its release. It now plans to relaunch the artificial intelligence (AI) powered tool in November on its new CoPilot+ computers.

[...]

When it initially announced the tool at its developer conference in May, Microsoft said it used AI "to make it possible to access virtually anything you have ever seen on your PC", and likened it to having photographic memory. It said Recall could search through a users' past activity, including their files, photos, emails and browsing history.

[...]

But critics quickly raised concerns, given the quantity of sensitive data the system would harvest, with one expert labelling it a potential “privacy nightmare."

[...]

[Pavan Davuluri, Microsoft's corporate vice president of Windows and devices says] that "Windows offers tools to help you control your privacy and customise what gets saved for you to find later".

However a technical blog about it states that “diagnostic data” from the tool may be shared with the firm depending on individual privacy settings.

[Microsoft says in a blog post that users can remove Recall entirely by using the optional features settings in Windows.]

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Issues are not worth my free time.

Exactly. I will say though that I learned a lot, so it'll be easier when I go back. I do plan to give Ubuntu a try as I've read it plays nicer with Nvidia.

My plan is to have a gaming-dedicated system for Windows and a non-gaming system for literally everything else on Linux.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

May i suggest for both of you to try Linux Mint (Regular Edition, XFCE MATE or Cinnamon) ? It is the only linux distro that has never failed me once, after also getting into unfixable messees with majaro, arch, endeavour, and also regular debian and LMDE not even booting up on my PC. It uses the Ubuntu base and several of its programs (like the extensive hardware compatibility and system stuff) but takes away the bad stuff in it (like the SNAPs, that loads of people hate both for not being FOSS and to replace the regular debian and flatpak, and give a worse performance in several cases like Firefox). I also agree every linux distro sans Mint is too rough for now, but Linux Mint is the magnum opus of linux, is already click-click-install, beginner-friendly and stable like rock.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Sadly, that's the distro I had when I did my dual boot last summer. My Lenovo just isn't compatible with it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Mint has not worked well with my Nvidia card either. Pop_OS is doing great, though. They have an Nvidia specific install with some optimization for Nvidia cards.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

That's good to know. Is it user-friendly?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Very. I have had to use the terminal for a couple things (VPN and some Switch modding), but 99% of the time it is unnecessary.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Popos was the one I tried last, out of curiosity.It ran smoothly at first. Then all of a sudden logging in to my user took 3 minutes. Turned out it was some custom popos syncing code that blocked the login process. I'm now running Ubuntu again 🥴

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

How long before that happened? I've been running it for several months and have had no issues

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Just a few months 😔 Perhaps it's is just me who's unlucky.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Dualboot is pretty ass and breaks all the time. I strongly suspect that was part of your issue

I am baffled to read you had to troubleshoot your linux installation every day, what kind of distro were you using?

Sorry you didn't have a good time.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Literally just Mint.

And yeah, I kind of just assumed dual-boot was a big part of the issue. I'm planning to repurpose my old PC to be a non-gaming Linux PC for everything but gaming when I upgrade later this year. Will be perfect for me to have a system for gaming only and one I can use for everything-but to protect my privacy.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Yeah, that's really the most straightforward solution unfortunately.

In case you're not already familiar look into sunshine/moonlight for quick access to the windows machine