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The new Recall feature they’re trying to push is creepy as fuck. No thanks.
Glad I moved to linux a few years ago so I don’t have to worry about any of this trash.
I feel like the headline and all these comments have WAAAAAYYYYY too much faith in the technical savvy and/or privacy concerns of the average pc user. They are not committing suicide. They know that a very small minority will be upset by recall and AI but the vast majority don’t know enough to care and definitely won’t take the time to learn about why they should care.
A massive breach on the scale that recall facilitates tends to change such things.
Our previous experiences with companies being hacked and leaking personal information on the “dark web” with little consequence to the bottom line anecdotally proves otherwise.
Microsoft knows that the addition of adds to Windows, Recall, data mining, etc are not suicide. As far as tech news goes, Lemmy really exists in an echo chamber. The vast majority of us at least have some interest in technology. For the majority of the population, though, this isn’t true. The typical person sees a computer as a tool to be used for other things. They’re not reading articles about the latest release of Windows, new CPU technology, the latest GPU, etc. They’re using their computer, and when it’s time for an upgrade, they buy whatever suits their needs.
If I was to ask any of my family, or most of my coworkers, about any of the latest “controversies” surrounding Microsoft, they would have no idea what I was talking about. Microsoft obviously thinks that the added profits gained by monetizing their customers will offset the loss of 1% of their users that switch to Linux. They’re probably right, too.
I like Windows, personally (well, Windows 10 at least). My unofficial rule has always been if it needs a GUI, then it runs Windows, otherwise, it runs Linux as a headless machine. Once Windows 10 is no longer a viable option, my unofficial rule will be “it runs Linux.” Most people will not make this switch.
But you’re ignoring the entire enterprise side of things. MS Recall + pervasive data mining and ad injections are things that the vast majority of IT departments are going to refuse to sign off on. These technologies meaningfully and fundamentally undermine organizational and system security, up to and including potential inadvertent exposure of cryptographic secrets, which the modern internet is basically built on top of.
Sure, consumers are likely going to acquiesce out of either laziness or ignorance. But IT orgs aren’t going to simply sign off on this - particularly if they’re operating in an industry where InfoSec really matters (basically, any regulated industry like medical, biotech, or aerospace).
Unfortunately most large organizations are running on enterprise releases that only lay down minimal software. Plus IT depts have heavily maintained images that immediately shuts off anything that sneaks in. Help desk is just going to disable the feature before slapping the company background image and VPN on it and giving it to standard users. They will make a ton of money in the short term and EOL the operating system when it’s no longer profitable and Linux is the default (decades from now). AOL is still out there
They didn’t have it set up to be easily disable-able, as far as I understand it.
I’ve seen this over and over in corporate environments.
Suit A has a terrible idea but enough fawning bootlickers to get the process moving.
Worker A, an employee, knows this is a terrible idea but doesn’t say anything because they wanna keep their job.
Contractor B, obv a contractor, is there to make money and hopefully turn their stint into something more, so they speak up. And get canned.
What is it about Suits that they can’t listen to literally anyone but their own echo chambers? Oh yeah, they’re angling to jump into a bigger echo chamber. The 1%.
I’m Worker A, and I speak up when I get asked to implement something terrible. Sometimes it works, but usually they don’t care. At least I don’t lose my job over it.
I can’t imagine working in a place where you have to be in fear of speaking the truth. I have never suffered negative consequences at any company I’ve worked at for pointing out why a terrible idea is terrible, but I’ve seen plenty of people who are afraid to speak up. It puzzles me.
