Despite not using Windows 11 myself, I have friends who do so, I like to keep “up to speed” on what Microsoft are up to.
From a Privacy point of view, Recall particularly concerns me. This appalling feature captures screenshots of everything that appears on a users screen.
After a huge outcry from users, I have read in The Register, that Microsoft ‘claim’ to have fixed this feature so that it no longer captures sensitive, financial information.
However, as expected, their changes have not really worked - see article.
However, what the writer of the feature fails to highlight, is that in order to create a screenshot with certain types of information redacted, the original full screenshot had to be captured first. And we don’t know what happens to that one? Probably stored in a different local location on the PC and almost certainly uploaded to Microsoft.
I really can’t understand why anyone would even consider using a windows pc for any task that required any personal or financial information.
As far as I understand this is a Copilot+ feature, not every Windows 11 user has this.
As long as there’s a choice for the user to have this (or have it enabled) or not, it’s just another case of users willingly sharing sensitive information with a tech company (and they are willingly using Windows for a start) which has “best intentions at heart” (pure comedy gold, Mr. Sean Wright). What else is new?
No - I have seen “Recall” and Co-pilot on a Windows 10 pc recently that is 15 years old and most definitely not Windows 11 compatible. I was surprised because I didn’t think these features would run on such an old PC, and that they were Windows 11 only.
Recall and Co-pilot can be turned off but, not permanently - they can be easy switched on again by a windows update, and unless the user checks each time the machine boots up, Recall could be running in the background, without their knowledge.
I don’t call that much of a choice.
In terms of having a choice about using Windows, I am doing my best to encourage people to move to Linux. But, older people who have only ever used Windows are often scared to move to a different, and unfamiliar system.
I introduced linux Mint to my moher in law about 10 years ago. Before I had to go and solve her computer problems on regular basis. Since then she has had hardly any issues att all. Ecspecially elderly people nowadays dont need all the “bells and whishles” availble to get the job done. And thats how I hope e/os will look now and in future .
EDIT: In retrospect, I think that my statements below are probably too harsh. I agree with @linux_fangirl that there are valid reasons not to use Windows 11 (namely, usability, privacy concerns, MS’s current business modell for private customers etc.). I just think that Recall in its current implementation is not the “smoking gun” or a critical reason not to use Windows 11.
(Original post below, slightly edited:)
I think that there is some misunderstanding here (and sorry if I play devil’s advocate).
No - I have seen “Recall” and Co-pilot on a Windows 10 pc recently that is 15 years old and most definitely not Windows 11 compatible.
That was definitely not Recall. It was probably just a link to login to Copilot. (The problem is that MS currently brands everything remotely connected to AI as “Copilot” - you usually get a chatbot similar to ChatGPT).
Recall needs a modern CPU with NPU to run its AI algorithms.
However, what the writer of the feature fails to highlight, is that in order to create a screenshot with certain types of information redacted, the original full screenshot had to be captured first. And we don’t know what happens to that one? Probably stored in a different local location on the PC and almost certainly uploaded to Microsoft.
What the article fails to mention is that you have to explicly enable Copilot.It is disabled by default.
Yes, sure, MS might enable it by default some day in the future, but considering all the negative press when the feature was announced, I doubt it.
The main problem is not that MS might somehow upload the screenshots to MS Azure (they won’t because the data is several GByte, and why upload if the OS could just upload all your stored account information and passwords?). The problem is that the screenshots are stored on your computer and may be stolen and analyzed by a malicious actor (be it a trojan or someone with access to your computer). But again, be aware of the risk and do not enable it.
Now, there may indeed be users who believe the marketing of MS that Recall is safe and enable it. This is a legitimate criticism IMHO.
To sum up, there are IMHO legitimate concerns about using a modern, closed-source OS like Windows. However, I would not consider Recall in its current implementation to be the main concern.
Of course, you are quite correct about this. The older people that have taken up my suggestion of trying Linux, some Ubuntu and some Mint, all really liked it. Some of their equally elderly computers eventually needed replacement and none of them were prepared to go back to using Windows but, asked me to install linux on their new machines, instead. I asked them why, and they mostly liked it more because “it just worked” and stayed pretty much the same over time, so they didn’t have to re-learn how to do things because of changes (to the user interface).