3 ms·

Does Recall work locally? If so, why would it send data to the cloud?

renegade-otter 2y ago
Because the whole point is to collect massive amounts of data to "train" their AI. AI is the new Big Data, but instead of just wanting your basic information, where you moved your mouse, and how long you stayed on a page, they want all of it.
- visarga 2y ago
  I doubt that. If you want a data hoover, look no further than chatGPT. People bring their data on a platter to it, private documents, drafts, personal problems, how to deal with government bureaucracy, anything actually. A diversity of people, they have more than 180M users, and if you assume a measly 10K tokens/user/month, that makes for 2 trillion tokens. And they are already language based, an alternation of AI text and human responses. What can AI learn from human responses? They carry implicit feedback - did the user take the last response and build on it, or request a clarification, or pushed back? Did he try the idea and it didn't work? All that feedback served by the human helps the AI just as much as the AI helps the human. chatGPT is a data blackhole. Every fine-tune can include new human preference data and new knowledge. Imagine the security implications if they fine-tune daily, learn a skill today, use it to assist someone else tomorrow. Maybe your nice idea will be implemented by someone else first!
johnfernow 2y ago
Windows user accounts used to work locally. At some point during Windows 10's life it became a hassle to use a local account on a new computer. Now in Windows 11, short of modifying the ISO or using other unintuitive workarounds (some of which Microsoft has patched out), you are required to be connected to the Internet and use a Microsoft account when setting up your new computer (even for Windows 11 Pro!) If despite that you choose to work around that requirement, several features are disabled, including ones that enhance security! Notably, you lose out on full-disk encryption on Windows 11 Home. On Home and Pro you lose out on facial recognition login (Windows Hello), which can be a useful tool for avoiding shoulder surfing attacks in public. But by using a Microsoft account, your computer's password can be reset remotely. There's no way (official or otherwise) to maximize security on Windows 11. Outside of Enterprise, there's not even an official manner to setup an air-gapped Windows 11 PC! Until they received massive backlash, Microsoft planned on requiring Xbox One users to have a Kinect (camera, mic, and motion sensing device) connected at all times when the console is on, as well as connect to the Internet once a day to use the console. https://www.pcmag.com/news/microsoft-xbox-one-wont-require-kinect-to-work https://www.pcmag.com/news/microsoft-xbox-one-wont-require-k... To an extent the theoretical concerns that people are stating about Recall sound like paranoia, but the examples above show Microsoft has a bad history when it comes to privacy. Connecting Recall to the Internet sounds like a terrible idea, but so does restricting/limiting local accounts on Windows and (planning on) mandating that your home game console has a camera and mic connected and is connected to the Internet each day. Unfortunately, they also have a bad history when it comes to security. Recent example: https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/3/24119787/microsoft-cloud-email-hack-china-us-cyber-report https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/3/24119787/microsoft-cloud-e... From the article, the US Department of Homeland Security claims that Microsoft has "a corporate culture that deprioritized enterprise security investments and rigorous risk management." So while on the surface the concerns about Recall seem unreasonable, I think the fear is more understandable given Microsoft's many previously unthinkable actions, in addition to their poor security.

Because the whole point is to collect massive amounts of data to "train" their AI. AI is the new Big Data, but instead of just wanting your basic information, where you moved your mouse, and how long you stayed on a page, they want all of it.

visarga 2y ago
I doubt that. If you want a data hoover, look no further than chatGPT. People bring their data on a platter to it, private documents, drafts, personal problems, how to deal with government bureaucracy, anything actually. A diversity of people, they have more than 180M users, and if you assume a measly 10K tokens/user/month, that makes for 2 trillion tokens. And they are already language based, an alternation of AI text and human responses. What can AI learn from human responses? They carry implicit feedback - did the user take the last response and build on it, or request a clarification, or pushed back? Did he try the idea and it didn't work? All that feedback served by the human helps the AI just as much as the AI helps the human. chatGPT is a data blackhole. Every fine-tune can include new human preference data and new knowledge. Imagine the security implications if they fine-tune daily, learn a skill today, use it to assist someone else tomorrow. Maybe your nice idea will be implemented by someone else first!

johnfernow 2y ago

Windows user accounts used to work locally. At some point during Windows 10's life it became a hassle to use a local account on a new computer. Now in Windows 11, short of modifying the ISO or using other unintuitive workarounds (some of which Microsoft has patched out), you are required to be connected to the Internet and use a Microsoft account when setting up your new computer (even for Windows 11 Pro!) If despite that you choose to work around that requirement, several features are disabled, including ones that enhance security! Notably, you lose out on full-disk encryption on Windows 11 Home. On Home and Pro you lose out on facial recognition login (Windows Hello), which can be a useful tool for avoiding shoulder surfing attacks in public. But by using a Microsoft account, your computer's password can be reset remotely. There's no way (official or otherwise) to maximize security on Windows 11. Outside of Enterprise, there's not even an official manner to setup an air-gapped Windows 11 PC! Until they received massive backlash, Microsoft planned on requiring Xbox One users to have a Kinect (camera, mic, and motion sensing device) connected at all times when the console is on, as well as connect to the Internet once a day to use the console. https://www.pcmag.com/news/microsoft-xbox-one-wont-require-kinect-to-work https://www.pcmag.com/news/microsoft-xbox-one-wont-require-k... To an extent the theoretical concerns that people are stating about Recall sound like paranoia, but the examples above show Microsoft has a bad history when it comes to privacy. Connecting Recall to the Internet sounds like a terrible idea, but so does restricting/limiting local accounts on Windows and (planning on) mandating that your home game console has a camera and mic connected and is connected to the Internet each day. Unfortunately, they also have a bad history when it comes to security. Recent example: https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/3/24119787/microsoft-cloud-email-hack-china-us-cyber-report https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/3/24119787/microsoft-cloud-e... From the article, the US Department of Homeland Security claims that Microsoft has "a corporate culture that deprioritized enterprise security investments and rigorous risk management." So while on the surface the concerns about Recall seem unreasonable, I think the fear is more understandable given Microsoft's many previously unthinkable actions, in addition to their poor security.