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Microsoft is About To Launch Recall For Real This Time 54

Posted by msmash from the up-next dept.
Microsoft is starting to gradually roll out a preview of Recall, its feature that captures screenshots of what you do on a Copilot Plus PC to find again later, to Windows Insiders. From a report: This new rollout could indicate that Microsoft is finally getting close to launching Recall more widely. Microsoft originally intended to launch Recall alongside Copilot Plus PCs last June, but the feature was delayed following concerns raised by security experts. The company then planned to launch it in October, but that got pushed as well so that the company could deliver "a secure and trusted experience."

Microsoft is About To Launch Recall For Real This Time More | Reply

Microsoft is About To Launch Recall For Real This Time

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  • "and last week, and yesterday, and 5 minutes ago, and ..."

    Or to put it another way, "The eyes of Texas^H^H^H^H^HRedmond are upon you, all the live-long day...."

    Of course, this has been true for some time now. The major difference is that more is being recorded. Much more.

    • It's a feature you have to opt in to, and requires use of Hello ID tool to tie your history to your biometric ID... but I'll enjoy watching all the really smart people here trip over themselves declaring it will be forced on users and there's no security to protect your 'snapshots'.

      To use Recall, you will need to opt-in to saving snapshots, which are images of your activity, and enroll in Windows Hello to confirm your presence so only you can access your snapshots.

      Note: "you will need to opt in and you will have to enroll in Windows Hello"

      Source: https://blogs.windows.com/wind... [windows.com]

      • Re: "I know what you did last summer" (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Bradac_55 ( 729235 ) on Friday April 11, 2025 @01:04AM (#65296691) Journal

        Nothing in Microsoft's history has been "opt-in" just like nothing in Oracle, Google, Facebook, or Amazon has ever been "opt-in" if your dumb enough to believe that your the perfect Win11 user so feel free go ahead and keep trucking down that path, good for you it really makes life easier.

        Win11 already sends enough analytics home to require a real firewall with layer 7 ability plus a router with full layer 4 BGP/DNS capabilities to block outgoing traffic. Your little home lab crap doesn't cut it anymore. But yea feel free to say retarded bullshit like that all day long while running a Nest camera and thermostat along with your Alexia microphones.

        I used to think it was all make believe hacker stuff as well until the MBA's took over and started selling everything on your computers, laptops, phones, tablets. The price for your data is $300 a month that's what they make selling your life the three letter agencies now pay more. I've worked for several fortune 100's as a network design eng. I play with Palo's/F5/A10's and zero trust hardware all day long I know what they do with it. Now I use that type of equipment at home.

        The only time I dual boot into Win11 is to play Escape From Tarkov (my one great FPS love) and Minecraft and that's on a hardware sand-boxed hard-drive that can not see my network and only enough internet to phone home to the game cheat engines.

      • The "opt in" will be done the same way as it has been for many previous features people didn't want, by using a multi-step process deliberately designed to push the customer towards opting in, making it as difficult as possible to say no.

        • It'll be opt-in like the Microsoft account is opt-in during Windows setup, where you have to do a special key combination and a registry hack to escape it during initial install, and still have to fight it every time an update installs in the same way. Most people don't have that amount of fight in them and will just shrug and accept it after the seventy-fifth nag screen slaps them at a critical moment when they need to get some shit done. Which is why Microsoft does it this way. Deniability "But it was opt

      • I am sure all this is true right now.

        Remember when a Microsoft account was optional for Windows 11? Those carefree, distant days? Now, itâ(TM)s virtually impossible to get a local-only account.

        So, what you say is true. For now. Pray they do not alter the agreement further.

      • Does Microsoft understand consent? Choose one of the below

        Yes.

        Remind me in 3 days.

  • "But I don't wan't any more, sir. Please sir."

  • Somehow, I expect that there is an AI training clause in the click through End User License Agreement.

  • Maybe it's due to regulations (Score:5, Insightful)

    by viperidaenz ( 2515578 ) on Thursday April 10, 2025 @10:18PM (#65296445)

    Some places require a legitimate need to collect personal information.

    Microsoft needs a feature to justify the collection of screen scraping, and they've been hitting road blocks with regulators.

  • hard to enjoy a little shadenfreude... (Score:3)

    by Big Hairy Gorilla ( 9839972 ) on Thursday April 10, 2025 @10:41PM (#65296477)
    When you realize Microsoft really and truly owns ... like "the business world"? Government? Banks? Airlines? I mean this is Orwellian at this point. The loss of autonomy of those very important institutions is should be disturbing if you think about it. Who won't want that data? Marry this story with the story of PreCrime in present day, the application of AI to psychologically profiling you, then predicting your behaviour... these things are made for each other, doncha think?

    • If you don't like it, then:

      - Don't sign up for windows insider previews
      - Don't enroll in Window Hello Facial recognition tool
      - Don't opt-in to enable the Recall feature

      You really have to go out of your way to activate this feature.

      • "You really have to go out of your way to activate this feature." ... for now.

      • Re: hard to enjoy a little shadenfreude... (Score:5, Interesting)

        by vbdasc ( 146051 ) on Friday April 11, 2025 @02:08AM (#65296771)

        First, things that are today in Insider tend to be in general builds tomorrow. But you know that already.

        Second, Hello and facial recognitions are things that some users have genuine need for. They're not some fringe features. Asking people to refrain from using them is not nice.

        Third, things that are opt-in tend to become opt-out and then mandatory. There is ample evidence in MS' history for them thinking they know better than the computer owner.

        But it's interesting to know why you felt the compulsion to spam this conversation with multiple copies of the same copypasta. Criticism of Recall struck a nerve? Are you Recall's product manager, per chance?

        • I was wondering the same thing. Does OP not realize that a bunch on telemetry on Windows 11 is mandatory and not opt in.

      • Its true you have to jump through hoops NOW to get this sewage on YOUR computer, but just wait till they jam it down everyone's throat who STILL use Windows.. Then see about "shadenfreude"....

      • You completely missed my point, but I'll run with yours anyways... they're putting facial recognition into most commercial buildings from what I see. So if you own 100 million in property or more you're eager to join the evil empire... I'll assume they use microsoft software for some reason. Either way, from locker room conversation, I hear some building managers bitching to each other. For one thing, they are under stress... and understaffed... so... Microsoft for the win. Easy easy stretch for the manager

  • Convergence (Score:5, Insightful)

    by abulafia ( 7826 ) on Thursday April 10, 2025 @10:47PM (#65296481)
    All commercial software eventually converges on surveilling the customer.

    • You have to be a windows insider, enroll in Windows Hello, and then opt-in to run this feature - it's a very weak piece of surveillance software - you have to go out of your way and jump thru several hoops to be a 'victim' of this software...

      • That's, for the time, the insider preview... what about when it gets released to the regular public version... how many people actually read the TOS and License stuff (and understand it)?

      • "You have to be a windows insider, enroll in Windows Hello, and then opt-in to run this feature - it's a very weak piece of surveillance software - you have to go out of your way and jump thru several hoops to be a 'victim' of this software..." ... for now.

    • All actions of members of the tribe eventually converge on enslaving and exploiting and eventually destroying the Amalek.

      And they even tell you if you ask them.

  • Under the guise of a "useful" AI agent, IMHO, they are getting you to train their agent by watching everything you do, which they can then sell or use to manipulate you. This is the current model of the internet. Soon they will have agents trained by CEO's, politicians, police, engineers, everyone.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      And the enshittification continues.

      The next upgrade will be called "Total Recall."

  • I'm sure the NSA will love this.

    Who knows, perhaps it was they who requested this in the first place.

  • About the opt-in (Score:5, Interesting)

    by CptJeanLuc ( 1889586 ) on Friday April 11, 2025 @02:13AM (#65296781)

    I see a lot of comments about opt-in features being no problem/risk. Which maybe works fine at home in the short term? But at work your employer may be choosing to opt-in on your behalf. Now you could say that's not your business, but it _does_ change something about the workplace dynamic, being constantly under surveillance. Next time you send an email to your leader, they can backtrack to the minutes leading up to the sending, and see all the edits you made. So people will be changing their behavior, which means never typing anything until they are sure that is what they will be typing. Also you will not be getting those short mental breaks as you sporadically check the news for a couple a minutes. Maybe do some artificial tasks inbetween to pretend you are a super well behaved employee, like appearing to spend a lot of time on notes about why the leadership is so great, and the weekly 5 things I did this week report. And productivity will ... drop! So it's a loss all around.

    BTW, today's opt-in is tomorrow's ... yeah, some of you get it.

  • Microsoft Panopticon ;) (Score:3)

    by Mirnotoriety ( 10462951 ) on Friday April 11, 2025 @08:03AM (#65297093)
    Coming to a computer near you, the Microsoft Electronic Panopticon [wikipedia.org]
  • Microsoft must be stopped from stealing intellectual property.
  • I got tired of waiting and now just use an open source option on my non-copilot pc. Itâ(TM)s a life changer.
  • If I can avoid this, I can: Preempt a redo of a preview of recall ?

    Sorry.

  • Recall is keeps a timeline of snapshots, but more than just screencaps. It's searchable, so if you looked at something on the web that was later taken down, that data is still there in Recall, searchable by natural lang queries I believe. While I can't imagine I'd have any use for this feature, maybe/probably some other people who spend a lot of time doing things I don't do might have a use for it.
    I can imagine companies/managers wanting to see everything you've been doing on your company computer.
    They alre

  • Frankly, this will probably die off faster than Cortana did.

    It only works on Qualcomm processors and I don't see this driving demand for the additional specialized acceleration options on Intel hardware. Also, it's pretty telling that MS didn't even try to accelerate it on GPU hardware either.

    And the overall demand for running local models is already waning off. So, sucking your battery dry so you can see if you saw a purse on a website has a limited audience of users.

    It's annoying that the executives at MS

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