Microsoft will try the data-scraping Windows Recall feature again in October
arstechnica.com
Initial Recall preview was lambasted for obvious privacy and security failures.

Microsoft will begin sending a revised version of its controversial Recall feature to Windows Insider PCs beginning in October, according to an update published today to the company’s original blog post about the Recall controversy. The company didn’t elaborate further on specific changes it’s making to Recall beyond what it already announced in June.

For those unfamiliar, Recall is a Windows service that runs in the background on compatible PCs, continuously taking screenshots of user activity, scanning those screenshots with optical character recognition (OCR), and saving the OCR text and the screenshots to a giant searchable database on your PC. The goal, according to Microsoft, is to help users retrace their steps and dig up information about things they had used their PCs to find or do in the past.

The problem was that other users on the same PC, or attackers with physical or remote access to your PC, could easily access, view, and export those screenshots and the OCR database since none of the information was encrypted at rest or protected in any substantive way.

Among the changes Microsoft has said it will make: The database will be encrypted at rest and will require authentication (and periodic reauthentication) with Windows Hello before users will be allowed to access it. The feature will also be off by default, whereas the original plan was to turn it on by default and make users go into Settings to turn it off.

    • Wooki@lemmy.worldEnglish
      82·
      3 months ago

      Linux Mint is better. No hacking necessary. It does what you want exactly as you set it.

        • Wooki@lemmy.worldEnglish
          32·
          3 months ago

          I am curious as to what that is? With how mature Linux and wine is, it’s pretty capable.

          • EmperorHenry@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
            23·
            3 months ago

            the antivirus and other security things I use, mostly.

            Contrary to popular belief, linux CAN get malware. And antivirus on linux and mac is watered down to just heuristics and signatures.

            • Wooki@lemmy.worldEnglish
              2·
              3 months ago

              All very fair points. software security, its a big problem only getting worse for every OS atm.

              Reflecting on recent events I have been impressed with immutibility and how nixos novel approach has really shined against the very big recent security incidents.

              Edit: I should state clearly that nix is not for the faint of heart. I would only recommend it for technical IT professionals. Even then it has serious documentation problem and could do with some improvements around officially sharing configurations in the community.

              • EmperorHenry@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
                1·
                3 months ago

                software security, its a big problem only getting worse for every OS atm.

                the differences on windows is that there’s several antivirus programs that work well. Most are garbage, but there’s several that are pretty good, and a small number of things you can add on to those setups that are awesome

          • JigglySackles@lemmy.worldEnglish
            13·
            3 months ago

            Are you actually or just looking to have an argument over it in effort to prove something? Linux is definitely great. But it’s still not the option for many, even if there are alt apps.

            • Wooki@lemmy.worldEnglish
              3·
              3 months ago

              Are you actually

              What wasnt clear in my comment?

              It also wasnt to you, your injection is clear you need some self reflection.

              • JigglySackles@lemmy.worldEnglish
                11·
                3 months ago

                Hazards of an open forum; other people will talk to you. If you don’t like that, avoiding the internet or at least forums might be easier for you.

                Looks like I hit a nerve though if you are already jumping to trying personal attacks though.

                I asked you because too many tech people, not even just linux people, enter into this argument with bad faith. Never intending to actually hear someone out or accept their position. Setting out with the sole intention of trying to prove to someone that their platform is accessible or superior in some way. And that’s just not the reality for many people when they delay leaving a platform. Evangelize all you like, but veiling it behind an attempt to help when you don’t care to, is disingenuous and doesn’t help anyone…

                Do whatever you like, I really don’t care. I was just trying to find out if it was a bad faith argument, and seems I have my answer.