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Is this why a new privacy setting quietly turned up called "Activity history"? > "Activity history: Jump back into what you were doing on your device by storin

Is this why a new privacy setting quietly turned up called "Activity history"? > "Activity history: Jump back into what you were doing on your device by storing your activity history, including info about websites you browse and how you use apps and services. Review the Learn more and Privacy Statement to find out how Microsoft products and services use this data to personalize experiences while respecting your privacy" "Copilot" also quietly turned up on my Windows 10 taskbar not long ago. I certainly didn't opt to install it.

benterix 2y ago
Frankly I don't understand why anybody would be surprised over this. They have been doing this stuff for over a decade? (I specifically mean quietly introducing privacy-hostile settings without user consent or knowledge, not other user-hostile stuff that's been going on for much longer).
hbn 2y ago
Copilot first appeared in my taskbar after an update as a pinned app, which I promptly I unpinned. Another update not long after it appeared again in my taskbar, this time not as a pinned app icon, but it literally replaced my "show desktop" button in the bottom right corner! I had to search online for other confused people looking to restore a basic desktop navigation feature that's been around since like 2009, because they replaced it with the 17th ever-present option to jump into their preinstalled bloatware! And just as a sidenote, Microsoft Copilot is by far the worst LLM I've tried to use, both in how dumb it is, but also in how infuriating it is when it gets stuff wrong while spamming a bunch of stupid emojis into every sentence like it's excited about how confidently stupid it is.
freitasm 2y ago
Activity History has existed for years. It's not new. New is extra data collection and Copilot "understanding" your activities based on those records.

benterix 2y ago

Frankly I don't understand why anybody would be surprised over this. They have been doing this stuff for over a decade? (I specifically mean quietly introducing privacy-hostile settings without user consent or knowledge, not other user-hostile stuff that's been going on for much longer).

hbn 2y ago

Copilot first appeared in my taskbar after an update as a pinned app, which I promptly I unpinned. Another update not long after it appeared again in my taskbar, this time not as a pinned app icon, but it literally replaced my "show desktop" button in the bottom right corner! I had to search online for other confused people looking to restore a basic desktop navigation feature that's been around since like 2009, because they replaced it with the 17th ever-present option to jump into their preinstalled bloatware! And just as a sidenote, Microsoft Copilot is by far the worst LLM I've tried to use, both in how dumb it is, but also in how infuriating it is when it gets stuff wrong while spamming a bunch of stupid emojis into every sentence like it's excited about how confidently stupid it is.

freitasm 2y ago

Activity History has existed for years. It's not new. New is extra data collection and Copilot "understanding" your activities based on those records.