Microsoft Will Switch Off Recall by Default After Security Backlash

Re:Microsoft Will Switch Off Recall by Default After Securit... by 1vuio0pswjnm7 on Friday June 07, 2024 @08:43PM (#40614370)

What's funny about this and other "recalls" (pun intended) of "products" from so-called "tech" companies as a result of "feedback", or "backlash" as Wired calls it, is that the companies never asked for such input and AFAIK no one is contacting the companies to give it. AFAICT it is obtained through surveillance. To people born after the internet this might seem normal, but to me it is quite odd. The companies claim to be operating in service of "users" but there is generally no direct contact between these "users" and the company.^1 With some isolated exceptions that have increased over time, there is no customer service. And in most cases the "customer" has not paid the company for the so-called "product". Generally, no one is asking a refund on their purchase of Windows because generally no one pays Microsoft for it. Instead people just complain into the ether.

No need to pay for being the target of surveillance. The "products" are free.

1. Unless we count the telemetry and "auto-updates". Users never asked for this stuff though, it is not initiated by them. This "product" is broken on delivery hence the alleged need to keep "fixing" it by remotely installing more software, presumably that isn't broken and will not used for surveillance, on peoples' computers. All for free. There is no money to refund if the "product" does not work as expected.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Microsoft Will Switch Off Recall by Default After Securit... by LogHouse on Friday June 07, 2024 @09:14PM (#40614519)

In this context, “feedback” means reputation compromising news cycles.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Microsoft Will Switch Off Recall by Default After Securit... by autoexec on Saturday June 08, 2024 @02:27AM (#40615699)

It's so weird to me that a company like Microsoft would care that much about "reputation". Everyone basically hates them already. Many of the most successful companies in the US are widely (if not universally) hated by the people who pay them. Nobody loves comcast, or exxonmobil, or centurylink, or EA, or equifax, or facebook. People feel trapped and unable to avoid paying some companies or using their products no matter how much they hate them. How many people have paid Microsoft for their OS at all? How much money would they really lose if they ignored the bad press? How many grandmas would start downloading linux?

I'm glad Microsoft is making changes, but I wonder how much is out of fear for their reputation and how much is just to try and comfort people and get the news to stop talking about it so that everyone doesn't just disable it as soon as it rolls out.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Microsoft Will Switch Off Recall by Default After Securit... by LogHouse on Saturday June 08, 2024 @12:36PM (#40618707)

So much of the youth use nothing but mobile OSs and Microsoft lost that - they’re not even a player! Macs have been selling more each year. Valve/Proton is bringing gaming to Linux. Microsoft is losing the non-corp consumers. The features are aimed at non-corp consumers.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Microsoft Will Switch Off Recall by Default After Securit... by autoexec on Saturday June 08, 2024 @02:19AM (#40615669)

Don't worry, even when you pay very high prices for products and service you're still being spied on. A company will always make more money by charging you as much as possible and then also collecting every scrap of data they can get their hands on. Every smart TV is spying on users and many are pushing ads. How many people do you think demanded their money back? Every game console sold still spies on you. Every car. Every cell phone. When there are no products that don't spy on us what will people do? Return them all and live in empty houses?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Microsoft Will Switch Off Recall by Default After Securit... by 1vuio0pswjnm7 on Sunday June 09, 2024 @06:38PM (#40628198)

If there was an HN commenter with a username taken from a DOS batch file who complains about game console surveillance, then would it be safe to conclude this might be a non-enterprise Windows user.

A reply about tangible products that people can choose to purchase or choose not to purchase is not a response to the comment I am making. These are examples of conscious choices, coupled with payment.

With few exceptions, non-enterprise Windows users are not consciously choosing to purchase a Windows license. They are choosing to purchase a computer. The decision to purchase a Windows license was made by the OEM. If we ask these computer purchasers what they bought, they are likely to describe a tangible product, e.g., "I bought a computer", not a license to use an operating system.

If something is wrong with the computer, then the purchaser can generally contact the seller/manufacturer for redress. But when the problem is with Windows, consumers generally do not contact Microsoft. Instead they complain into the ether.

Good luck enforcing warranties or products liability laws against Microsoft with respect to a free copy of non-enterprise Windows that was pre-installed on a computer. Windows can be broken six ways to Sunday, it can be a defective "product", and Microsoft can take its time fixing the problems, or even just leave them as is.

[ Parent | on HN ]