Question Any other security risk after turning off Windows 11's Recall?

[tablespoon]

Hello, with all these AI features installed on this year's new computers, I am concerned about security risk. If we turn off Recall, does Windows 11 still do something behind our back? Is Linux or MacOS safer to use?

 

[Muadib]

Microsoft is only putting Recall on the new Copilot Plus PCs. As of now, it won't be on Windows Update. Not yet anyway...

If you have a new Copilot Plus pc, you can turn Recall off.

Microsoft's AI Recall Feature May Not Even Hit Your PC, but Here's How to Disable It

There are calls for Microsoft to pull back on its recall feature before it creates a security crisis.

www.cnet.com

 

[tablespoon]

I plan to buy a new computer. If there are other new features which collect information in the name of helping the users and they cannot be turned off, I move to other OS.

 

[mikeymikec]

I plan to buy a new computer. If there are other new features which collect information in the name of helping the users and they cannot be turned off, I move to other OS.

My perception of what you've written in this thread is that you consider the above to be a non-negotiable red line, if so: I think you're putting yourself in quite a tricky position, because there have been various incidents of "big-name software maker claimed that their product did not do X / X could be switched off" only for their claims to be untrue; you can't prove they're not engaging in shady practices (which frankly the big three all are these days because it's all about the gathering and marketability of information). An example of which was Edge's feature to import Chrome data which turned out to be an ongoing process; it beggars belief that Microsoft's developers did not notice this because you have to design a workflow to be ongoing or to have a conclusion; why on earth would importing browser data take any more than a matter of seconds, at most a minute.

Even if you went for an open-source option, I wouldn't automatically assume that a distro which is backed by a commercial company is above such practices either. Admittedly I haven't heard of such a company engaging in what I described in the previous paragraph.

Back when I started in the tech sector, a piece of software opening a port to the Internet unexpectedly was a major news story (in the IT sector); traffic was often monitored for "is more information going out than the company claims?". These days they just don't bother any more because the attitude of big-name tech companies has shifted; the only news that would make a big splash would be if such data collection was being done in the clear.

Choosing a product by the big three OS makers (MS, Apple, Google), I think the following would not be hotly debated: If your wish is to preserve your data privacy as much as possible, then expect to have to trawl through settings and disable as many Internet-connected services as possible to try and plug all the holes, and to have to keep on top of current events to find out about whatever new shenanigans they've rolled in via updates.

If I have understood where you're coming from correctly, then I would advise you to go for Linux as I think it's somewhat more likely that Linux software devs' priorities and sensibilities are a lot more likely to be in line with your philosophy to begin with.

All of this aside, I personally currently consider AI on the desktop to basically be a giant vapourware balloon (or at most yet another MS project that gets abandoned a year or three after birth), primarily intended to inflate stock prices. I think if Recall and similar AI features are the main reason for your concern, then IMO your concern is mostly unwarranted at present.

 

[WelshBloke]

Get Windows Pro and group policy to death all the AI stuff.