Microsoft Recall still captures your data

Even with “sensitive information” supposedly blocked

I don’t usually opine about Microsoft, or rant, but this is just … there are no words. But I’ll try to find some.

First, why does Microsoft need all your personal data when you install Windows? Why do they need to get your street address, email address, birthday, phone number, and more. I guess they don’t need to ask for your banking information because they have enough information to obtain it anyway.

And now there’s Recall. Excuse me while I vomit.

According to Wikipedia, “Recall is a feature of Windows 11 that takes a screenshot of a user’s desktop every few seconds and then uses on-device artificial intelligence models to allow a user to retrieve items and information that had previously been on their screen.” And we all know how perfect AI is, right?

Recall functions by taking frequent screenshots of the data on the screens of Windows users and storing the data, allegedly on the local host. Considering Microsoft’s history regarding security, I’m sure I wouldn’t trust them. This may be true for now (though I wouldn’t bet on it) but I expect they’ll change the strategy in the future because … well, which stupid reason they might use is irrelevant.

According to this article on Tom’s Hardware, even with “sensitive information” allegedly being blocked, Recall keeps taking screenshots of most of it including your credit card and other personal data. Not that they don’t already have most of that.

I guess the phrase “It’s for security” makes everything okay?

This is one very important reason why I use Linux. It doesn’t phone home with all of my data.