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Windows Recall is secretly installed and enabled on non-Copilot+PCs (Privacy Nightmare)
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this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2024
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I've found it very interesting. So far as I can tell it's installed and enabled (even on non co-pilot PCs). However I have yet to see or hear of anyone that has found evidence that it is actually running and doing its job (capturing screenshots and creating the database for the AI model).
To me, the fact it's installed and enabled and they've not stood up by now and said "Ooops our bad, it was only meant to be on copilot PCs and we should have added it to the features menu so you can turn it off" just suggests that, the stuff is there and at some point they will flip a switch on ALL PCs to enable it.
It's quite lucky that a week or so ago when I got some new SSDs, I put aside 2TB for a linux boot to replace my old broken previous linux dual boot. Not booted into windows in over a week.
I mean, it's not like accidentally running Recall once is going to automatically compromise all your data to Microsoft in perpetuity. I don't even know what the final implementation is supposed to be, I'll make up my mind when I can review it, not before. Ditto for Apple's version on the new iPhones and all the other stuff being promoted right now.
But in this case I'm just puzzled. At this point it sure looks like they installed some package or service that is probably the ground layer for the actual feature at some point, but that doesn't mean it's doing anything at the moment. Maybe logging the same metadata as the Win8 feature, but it's not clear (there is a "activity history" setting in the privacy settings now, perhaps it's part of that?).
If anything the panic shows how tainted the Recall name has become, but that's not new for Microsoft. That original logging feature was also widely hated, as was a lot of their search or their current, mandatory "widget" news feed that nobody has ever found useful. The question is how widely tainted it is, and whether normies will want to burn it with fire as much as the Linux-facing techies.
To be clear, I installed a new Linux system totally separate to this and just coincidental, and there's still some things I need to use Windows for, so it's not going anywhere soon. But for sure this whole thing is one more reason to be suspicious of Microsoft.
As I said, I am not sure there's any evidence showing it's actually doing anything yet. None I've seen at least.
But, I think there's some very suspicious points that stand out to me.
If this wasn't going to be anything to do with the recall functionality that has been previously described, then I feel fairly sure they would have posted an announcement about it by now. Silence in general is a bad thing for this kind of thing in my experience.
But, since it's not doing anything now I'm more in a "wait and see" stance personally.
Well, I don't know how long this has been a thing or how prominent it is. I haven't seen it in the more mainstream news channels, this thread was my first notice. I expect if people start to freak out in larger, more mainstream circles they may want to address it. Right now it's only reached a few people, I think.
There's been a lot of youtube videos made on the tech side of it. But, like I say they all make a fair point. It's installed, enabled and hidden. But none of them have shown any evidence of it actually collecting data yet.
This arrived in the 24H2 windows update I think it was about a week ago.
Frankly that sounds like "OK, I did install a camera in your bedroom, but it's not like it's on or anything!"
Definitely. And it's actually "We installed a camera in your bedroom, but it's hidden, you cannot remove it. It's enabled but don't worry it's not recording".
I just ideally would like Microsoft to say something. Because at the moment it's super weird to enable it on PCs that it's not meant to run on.