Microsoft’s controversial Callback feature is enabled by default when installing Windows and users have to delve into Windows Settings to disable it.
Over the weekend, The Verge’s Tom Warren posted screenshots showing Microsoft’s latest out-of-the-box experience (OOBE), in which the reminder feature can only be disabled if the user opens settings after completing the setup.
The feature remains a preview, and the first Copilot+ PCs that will support it aren’t expected to hit shelves until June 18 – although users have shown it running on less exotic hardware. This date means that there is still time to make changes, especially in light of the controversy surrounding Recall, described by a cybersecurity researcher as “a keylogger” integrated into Windows.
Recall regularly takes snapshots of a user’s Windows activity, which it stores locally. The user can then take a step back and find out what they were doing in the previous days, weeks or months. AI magic is used to help a user search for what they want and suggest actions.
It’s also a potential privacy nightmare. Despite updating its documentation to include browsers other than Edge in its list of “supported browsers” capable of filtering specific websites and private browsing activity, Microsoft Support still notes:
Rumor has it that Microsoft may change OOBE to prevent the feature from being enabled by default. Steven Sinofsky, who played a role in bringing Windows 8 to the world, noted that the default configuration was “the least problematic part of the feature.”
Sinofsky also observed: “Features that represent the future of computing should be enabled by default, and disabling should not be part of a routine or default customer experience. If they cannot be enabled, it is not a platform feature. »
For Microsoft, AI is the future of computing. It is necessary because the company needs to show a certain return on investment and Windows 11 has not yet set the market on fire.
If recall were an option that consumers had to opt-in to rather than opting out of, it would be easy to imagine this feature phasing out. Enterprise administrators can already disable snapshot backup through a group or device management policy and are unlikely to re-enable it until regulators finish digging into Microsoft’s plans.
With AI on the roadmap for the vast majority of Microsoft products, making recall an option that isn’t enabled by default would call into question its commitment to the strategy. Although many privacy and security experts would welcome a rollback. ®
News Source : www.theregister.com
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