You should be able to access everything on your own computer - that is a good thing.
The real problem with Recall is that Microsoft will access the data to apply some algorithmic secret sauce. The product manager already probably has all kinds of ideas for the future: targeting ads, upselling licenses, or making MS more attractive to law enforcement.
Yes, there is a benefit for the user, like a nicer search or something, but that is relatively minor. ..because Microsoft is not your friend. This feature is born from a harvesting mindset.
Regarding disappearing messages: I have two chats on WhatsApp where disappearing messages are turned off, and maybe a handful on Signal.
It is actually less common to disable them on WhatsApp than on Signal, mainly because Signal forbids delete windows longer than four weeks. That is not long enough sometimes.
I have no idea how our usage here ends up being so dramatically different. I don't even tend to talk about the feature with most contacts.
Incorrect. This runs locally.
Microsoft is advertising the data just as much as you opening the file in notepad or browsing a folder in explorer.
And once again I just point to all the people complaining about a lack of backup and weak transfer ability. They're not looking to backup a nearly empty history.
It does not matter whether Recall runs locally. Microsoft controls the OS, the feature, and the update pipeline. If they decide tomorrow to start syncing Recall data to the cloud - for any reason - they can. The local processing angle is just an implementation detail, not a meaningful protection.
What matters is that - with this feature turned on - MS is structuring and indexing your private data at the system level. That is not a neutral act. Once the data is structured and accessible, uploading it is trivial. And given Microsoft's cloud-first direction, the trajectory seems clear to me.
I understand your point, but the theoretical similarity between unstructured local data and the Recall database is not useful in practice. It's like telling a farmer that it doesn't matter whether the grain is in the barn or still in the field because he can access it either way.
> Microsoft controls the OS, the feature, and the update pipeline
So then this is true whether or not Recall exists, because Microsoft could have gathered this data either way. They could decide tomorrow to have Explorer siphon off that data, they could have Edge siphon off that data, they could have Windows update siphon off that data. Microsoft could have silently been doing this the whole time.
If you don't trust Microsoft with Recall, you shouldn't trust Microsoft with any of it. And you probably should have moved off Windows a long time before.
> MS is structuring and indexing your private data at the system level
This has been going on for a long time. Once again, if you don't like the idea of Microsoft running software in a Microsoft operating system to read your files you really shouldn't be running Windows, and shouldn't have been running Windows for decades.
The real problem with Recall is that Microsoft will access the data to apply some algorithmic secret sauce. The product manager already probably has all kinds of ideas for the future: targeting ads, upselling licenses, or making MS more attractive to law enforcement.
Yes, there is a benefit for the user, like a nicer search or something, but that is relatively minor. ..because Microsoft is not your friend. This feature is born from a harvesting mindset.
Regarding disappearing messages: I have two chats on WhatsApp where disappearing messages are turned off, and maybe a handful on Signal.
It is actually less common to disable them on WhatsApp than on Signal, mainly because Signal forbids delete windows longer than four weeks. That is not long enough sometimes.
I have no idea how our usage here ends up being so dramatically different. I don't even tend to talk about the feature with most contacts.