Is Microsoft spying on you, collecting your information and selling it to the highest bidder?
With the recent announcement of the new ‘Recall’ feature from Microsoft, there has been quite a bit of speculation and blowback on them about this very subject. Recall has even been compared with Malware, people saying it’s designed to collect information on your computer habits and sending all of that back to Mother Microsoft… But what really is the truth?
Let’s cover a couple of points here and then you can make your own decision from there.
The new Feature is called Microsoft Recall. This is basically a service that’s coming with the next major release of Windows 11 called 24H2, due most likely in the later part of the 3rd or beginning of the 4th quarter of this year. The first “Preview” builds of this were released to the Developer program on February 8th of this year (2024) so it’s been out for a little while now for individuals to see what’s coming, but until the final version is released, there’s no guarantee of exactly what’s going to be in it and if it’s going to be enabled by default when it finally is released to the general public.
Why is this important?
Recall is going to utilize AI the new NPU’s, or neural processing engines coming in the new Qualcomm and other chip maker machines. Basically it’s going to take a snapshot of your computer screen every 3 seconds and save that to your computer so that at a later point of time, say later that day, the next day, a week later or longer, you can ask the computer in plain language about something you saw or were doing around a certain point of time and the AI engine will take that request and be able to search all of those saved screen shots to try and find that content you’re talking about.
For example, let’s say you were looking at pink flamingo’s in the morning for something and later that afternoon you realize you want to take another look at something you saw earlier, but you can’t remember where or exactly when you saw it. You can ask Recall to find the flamingos you were looking at this morning and Recall can search the screen shots it took and find not only when you were looking at them, but also show you the screens where you were looking at them so you can find what you wanted.
Sounds kind of neat huh? Well, it’s this functionality that has most people in an uproar. While it IS neat technology, being able to simply ask you computer to find something you were looking at at some point, it’s also concerning from a security stand point for two very significant reasons.
- Although Microsoft states that the Recall screenshots, data, indexing and everything on your machine that makes it function is going to stay completely on your machine and is encrypted so it’s protected. The biggest concern is that the data is ONLY going to remain on your machine, that Microsoft is promising to keep their hands off of it and not send it to themselves for “research” purposes… Or in the future, change their terms and conditions of use for the Windows Operating System and sneak in collecting part or all of that data for “diagnostic” purposes. It’s really a question of trusting Microsoft in regards to what they can and will collect from your and sent to themselves (and possibly sell to someone else)
- I guarantee you that hackers, malware and virus writers and more have already been exploring heavily how to compromise this storage so that they can steal that data in the future. Think about it, every secure site you go to in your browser (remember, it takes pictures of your screen), every user name and password you enter, every document you look at, everything is going to be captured with very few exceptions (Microsoft says it won’t capture data in InPrivate or other incognito windows, Windows Rights Management screens, etc.). Just imagine how much easier if they get their hands on this kind of data (all your screen shots), how they can compromise accounts, data and more using that? This is a HUGE security risk!
I can hear you now, “Okay I get it, it’s a big security risk and I don’t trust Microsoft”.
But as they say in Infomercials, “But wait! There’s More!”
For whatever reason, the developers at Microsoft thought it would be a brilliant idea to have this new “feature” enabled for everyone BY DEFAULT! Meaning, you install Windows 11 24H2 and Poof! It’s there, turned on and collecting data right away! You actually would need to go and turn it off if you DIDN’T want it. This also speaks to me how shady of an idea this really is. Thankfully there has been so much blowback over the Internet and in public about this that Microsoft has changed it’s stance. Now, not only is it going to be disabled by default, but Microsoft is now adding additional security measures to help or additionally protect the data on your machine.
Why didn’t they add these additional security measures before? Why did it take a public uproar for them to add it?
So, anyway, here we now are. This feature is going to be in the next major release of Windows and disabled by default, so we can calm down a little and relax, but I also wanted to say something else about it.
One thing that tends to be glossed over a little bit here are the things that this new feature will REQUIRE simply to be able to run on any machine. The machine needs to be designated as Copilot+ PC Ready
- The machine will be required to have a NPU (Neural Processing Unit or Engine) in it that meets what’s called a TOPS score (or Trillions of Operations per Second) of 40 or better
- 16 GB or RAM
- 8 Logical Processors
- 256 GB of storage capacity (to enable Recall, you’ll need at least 50 GB of storage space free) and saving screen shots automatically pauses when the device has less than 25 GB of free storage space
There are additional restrictions that also haven’t been talked about that aren’t exactly related to Microsoft Recall but are important never the less.
We need to cover a little history here on what ARM is an why it’s important…
There are new “NPU” processors coming as part of a whole new CPU design based on a whole different technology called ARM.
Now, while ARM is nothing new, the first chip was actually designed in 1985 by Acorn Computers and is the ‘A’ in ARM (Acorn RISC Machine). It’s what’s called a RISC processor (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) and due to the greater simplicity of the processor, it runs faster, cooler, more efficiently and uses significantly less power.
These facts have been a big draw for years now as processors have been put into everything from cell phones to toys, appliances and more. You name it and there’s probably a “smart” version of it out there somewhere! It’s because these processors has such low power requirements that they’re so incredibly popular especially in mobile devices, but up until now, they haven’t been able to really break back into to the PC market in any significant way… Notice I said until now!
Apple actually switched from Intel X86 processors to ARM a number of years ago when they came out with their Mx serries chips. This I believe significantly helped the market accept ARM/RISC chips in every day computing as a viable replacement to the X86 serries chips (Intel and AMD), even though ARM Processors have been used for years in cell phones and tablets due to it’s very efficient power draw.
One of the biggest players in the field of cell phones especially is a company called Qualcomm. Qualcomm has designed and produced many of the chips that make our modern world possible. Take a look inside almost any electronic device and you’ll usually see at least one, or more, chip with the name Qualcomm on it. This includes an ARM processor.
Qualcomm knew the power of their chips and the devices that were using them and decided to get into the ARMs race (pardon the pun) with Apple (at the very least). So they designed and produced another buzz word you might have heard lately.
Here we get to the meat of the subject. Snapdragon.
Snapdragon is what’s referred to as a SOC, or System On a Chip. To put it simply, it’s basically one entire computer, all the different components, built into one single piece or die. It’s the Processor, RAM, Controllers, Graphics, etc. all in one. This is the same thing that Apple did when they created the M serries of chips (the Apple M1, M2, etc. are all SOC’s or systems on a chip). By producing this and incorporating the ARM processor in this SOC, they significantly reduce the amount of power required to run the computer, dramatically increase the performance of the machine and lower the amount of heat generated by the device when running.
Now this isn’t anything revolutionary, but there are some important pro’s and cons.
Of the pro’s I’ve already covered some of them:
Faster
More Efficient
Runs Cooler
But there are Con’s that go along with the Pro’s:
ARM – is a different instruction set from the X86 processor, software has to either be written for this or emulated on the chip in order to run
SOC – Everything is built into the SOC chip itself. For example, you cannot upgrade the RAM of the machine because that’s INSIDE the chip itself. You can’t remove the old ram and install newer/larger capacity RAM. You could need to replace the entire SOC chip itself to accomplish that
Laptop Only – Qualcomm is manufacturing Snapdragon chips only for laptop devices, not Desktops.
Con’s aside though, Microsoft has committed to make Windows as compatible with ARM chips as possible. A lot of testing of software has been done already to verify if it will run properly with the X86 instruction set emulated (where needed) and most software WILL run on ARM, but there’s still the chance that something may not. That’s an important point to be aware of before you purchase a device with an ARM Processor, verify any mission critical software is available for ARM or will function correctly with the X86 emulation with Windows.
Notice here that I’ve only been talking about the Apple M series and Qualcomm Snapdragon chips here? Well, even that’s not the full story. Intel and AMD certainly aren’t going to roll over and die because of ARM.
You guessed it, they’re making their own chips, Lunar Lake for Intel and Ryzen HX370 for AMD, to compete in the ARM Market place.
This is the first major change in computer architecture to significantly hit the market in decades as Intel and the X86 instruction set has dominated it since the 80’s.
Okay, let’s get back to why the uproar over Microsoft Recall is a little overblown now that we’ve had our bit of a history lesson.
So, we now know that only certain PC’s will be able to run the feature, it’ll be turned off by default, but the other things are:
It’s only going to run on a new or existing LAPTOP that has a Snapdragon processor going into the Summer of 2024 AND the feature won’t even be released to the general public until Windows 11 24H2 is release and is live and that’s in the fall of 2024.
That’s right, all of these people have been loosing their collective minds over something that isn’t even going to be here for months yet.
Complaining about a feature, that’s now turned off by default and that will only be available on specific laptops that you can’t even buy yet.