Embed Notice

TL;DR: Copyright, privacy and security will take a further backseat amidst the deluge of AI leveraged productivity tools that are deeply integrated with existing workflows and with great usability for normies. To protect privacy, copyright and security users have to be much more conscious and use additional tools and settings. This will add to increased effort, cost and cognitive load. Most of us will succumb.

Privacy conscious users have read and understood that Microsoft's new Windows 11 Recall is a privacy nightmare. Accordingly, they will advocate no usage or very restricted usage and I would agree with them. I also agree with them when they raise similar serious privacy concerns about Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube etc.

But none of these concerns have slowed the usage of WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube etc. Big Tech continue to actively develop and upgrade these flagship products since they significantly impact both the top line and bottom line. Big Tech will also continue to claim and promote data and user security while actually leveraging the metadata to offer personalized services and targeted advertising, leading to increased recurring revenue. Another interesting approach is to integrate with existing services and apps to garner critical mass as rapidly as possible.

Recall on Copilot+ PCs cannot be an exception to this approach. It is just a matter of time before more such similar AI assisted tools will be available. Even though Microsoft Recall does not perform content moderation and will not hide information such as passwords or financial account numbers, it will not deter most users if the usability is good enough for the user. Microsoft has full access to its own Windows 11 ecosystem and also has deep pockets to incrementally and frequently improve usability to enhance the feel of seamless integration with Windows ecosystem and increased productivity. As per this blog, the investment is already remarkable.We are excited to extend the Microsoft Copilot stack to Windows with Windows Copilot Runtime. We have infused AI into every layer of Windows, including a fundamental transformation of the OS itself to enable developers to accelerate AI development on Windows. I sometimes request not to take screenshots when I remotely share my desktop screen though collaboration tools. Now I also have to remember to also pause snapshots and strongly suggest to do the same from the Recall icon in the system tray. I am also aware that many privacy focussed cross platform tools will be threatened. I don't think Big Tech considers the users of these tools as mainstream users (read normies) yet. To minimize this threat, developers and users have to increase their effort and cost.Filtering apps and websites from your snapshots
You can filter out apps and websites from being saved as snapshots. You can add apps and websites at any time by going to Settings > Privacy & security > Recall & snapshots on your PC.
Filtering out specific websites will only work in supported browsers such as Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Opera, and Google Chrome. You always have the option to filter out all browsing activity by adding an app filter for a browser. To add support for website filtering, developers need to implement Recall activity APIs.
Recall won’t save any content from your private browsing activity when you’re using Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Opera, Google Chrome, or other Chromium-based browsers.It is a wishful thinking that Microsoft AI “Recall” feature does not gain enough traction and is eventually withdrawn. Big Tech seems to be committed to leverage AI to help consumers traverse their digital workspaces more effectively.

#BigTech #Microsoft #AI #Privacy #Security #Recall #IrresponsibleTech #PrivacyMatters #DataProtection