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

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

78 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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] 7 points 1 month ago (5 children)

... until you inevitably need to use the shell. Linux, no matter the flavor, has been very easy to use in the 22 years that I've tried to use it - until you need to dig ever so slightly deeper for something and then it very much isn't. I started out with a Knoppix live-CD back in 2002. Remember that distro?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It looks like your opinions about Linux are outdated and need an update.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

I've got a Steam Deck and two servers running on Linux.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

I started with a Knoppix-based distro, called Kurumin. KDE 3 was the rage back then!

On your main point: the shell might be hard in the beginning, but for most things that you need to use the shell with, people on the internet already had the same issue and shared how to do it. Unless you're actively trying to make something different, like I did with my audio switching script.

And even the sort of situation that you need to use the shell for decreased by a lot from back then to now.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

What kind of task made you use the shell in Linux Mint (and i only know Mint after 2021) ? Was it a common task a regular person would need to do, or was it a geek or pro task that regular people would not even know it exists ? I installed Nvidia drivers with a click-install GUI easier than the windows equivalent, the appstore that is only rivaled by Apple had every debian and flatpak program i searched, and all the configurations i could ever tweak are in the configurations manager (unlike the current Windows mess of control panel and worse control panel).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

I started out with a Knoppix live-CD back in 2002. Remember that distro?

Thats what got me to start dual-booting and eventually nuke my Win XP install entirely.

It's been all penguins ever since.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago

I haven't needed to use CLI for much at all.