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A PR disaster: Microsoft has lost trust with its users, and Windows Recall is the straw that broke the camel's back (www.windowscentral.com)

submitted 5 months ago by lemmee_in@lemm.ee to c/technology@lemmy.world

479 comments fedilink hide all child comments

It's a nightmare scenario for Microsoft. The headlining feature of its new Copilot+ PC initiative, which is supposed to drive millions of PC sales over the next couple of years, is under significant fire for being what many say is a major breach of privacy and security on Windows. That feature in question is Windows Recall, a new AI tool designed to remember everything you do on Windows. The feature that we never asked and never wanted it.

Microsoft, has done a lot to degrade the Windows user experience over the last few years. Everything from obtrusive advertisements to full-screen popups, ignoring app defaults, forcing a Microsoft Account, and more have eroded the trust relationship between Windows users and Microsoft.

It's no surprise that users are already assuming that Microsoft will eventually end up collecting that data and using it to shape advertisements for you. That really would be a huge invasion of privacy, and people fully expect Microsoft to do it, and it's those bad Windows practices that have led people to this conclusion.

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[–] beaxingu@kbin.run 8 points 5 months ago

Microsoft should go further and further with this so that windows becomes worse so that less people use it.

[–] neo@lemy.lol 8 points 5 months ago

Aside from the security nightmare, I'm really curious what havoc the LLM can cause by hallucinating stuff, based on how suggestive a question is asked.

Wife on husband's account: "What dating sides did I visit this year?"
"Here are the 5 most popular dating sides you visited last year:..."

"When was the last time employee X watched porn and on what side?"
...

[–] Ghyste@sh.itjust.works 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

They say this like anyone is going to do something...

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[–] n0m4n@lemmy.world 7 points 5 months ago

As much as I liked Visual Studio, its privacy intrusiveness was my final straw.

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I know that I shouldn't, but here's what I think about this whole deal, illustrated with a single image macro:

Get wrecked, Microsoft.

I think that the article does a good job highlighting how much of a trainwreck this is, because Microsoft is not to be trusted. The Windows users hysterically complaining about this are not expecting Microsoft to behave in some outrageous way; they're expecting Microsoft to behave as usual.

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[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 6 points 5 months ago (6 children)

And yet again, install Linux. Leave Microsoft behind

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[–] Katana314@lemmy.world 6 points 5 months ago

The article was revised with a PR release from Microsoft saying they'll make the feature opt-in.

Let's of course not forget that things like upgrades to Windows 11, and use of an MS Account instead of local account, were opt-in...until they weren't. Require them to sign a contractual agreement that this feature will remain opt-in forever.

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