Have any other popular operating systems implemented something similar recently? If so that would be quite the tell that Microsoft are being coerced into this.
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Not at the operating system level, but there is a Mac app called ScreenMemory which does mostly the same thing.
I used to use it as a convenient way to find websites that I had read something about in the recent past but couldn't remember exactly where.
I mainly stopped using it because it was causing performance problems.
I made ScreenMemory. Usually the performance issues happen when users have high resolution monitors (often multiple) and set it to take screenshots very often (like every 2 seconds). It's fair because that's sort of how Rewind works, but ScreenMemory is generally built with longer intervals in mind, the default is 60s. I use this on my 2016 MBP without performance issues.
I have some improvements in the pipeline for lower capture intervals though.
> If so that would be quite the tell that Microsoft are being coerced into this.
You think shadowy governments are coercing Microsoft into adding an opt-in AI feature?
You think shadowy governments are coercing Microsoft into adding an opt-in AI feature?
They could be, yes. Once the code base is there then it is just a feature toggle at that point. One dial home to the mothership means one could be toggled on, toggled off as desired. As for shadowy I think we've seen they need not hide in the shadows nor do they even try.
Several computers that ship from Amazon have malware pre-installed. I found a case where it was installed but not running. To nobody's surprise I format any disk I receive before I actually put it to real use but many people do not. Malware being preinstalled and Defender being pre-configured to not alert means the malware can simply be activated by a dropper for any C&C agents doubling as an application updater. "We pinky promise it's just to update the RGB LED's".
This code should be installed like any other optional code. Ask the person if they want it installed and if they click yes then install it in the background and let them know when it is ready to use.
I mean Apple is attempting to implement “Siri personal context”/ originally expected to ship it in March -/ seemed similar to recall.
Sounds related. So now we must summon the combined power of HN to find the simplest way to hobble this behavior on Mac and Windows without entirely breaking the OS itself and that our overlords would find entertaining.
Siri can be disabled on iOS and MacOS by Apple Configurator MDM, which generates an XML policy file that can also be generated by any text editor or shell script.
> So now we must summon the combined power of HN to find the simplest way to hobble this behavior on Mac and Windows without entirely breaking the OS itself
Hopefully the combined power of HN can figure out how to not enable this opt-in feature.
Hopefully the combined power of HN can figure out how to not enable this opt-in feature.
Feature toggles like this can be enabled on a single OS update, a single dial-home to the mother-ship. If the code is there I assume it is running. The only winning move is not to play.
So ... a bit off topic, but I want the opposite from OS vendors. The OS installation should take at most 3 minutes. Any features or geese that lay golden eggs that I desire should be a checkbox in a list of optional services. If I do not select anything the OS should not be bigger than 3GB for a desktop or 1GB for a server and even that is quite a bit bloated. If code is discovered on a machine that the administrator or owner did not intentionally install that needs to be treated as a security incident meaning "all hands on deck" and "all lawyers on a conference call with the OS vendor".
As a bit of a tangent, done right I should be able to click a button in Ansible and completely re-install the OS to a fleet of 100K bare metal servers in less than 10 minutes across 4 data-centers per region not counting POST time. Once the database OS is up their tamper-proof backups automatically restore, app servers grab their code and in 30 minutes every data-center is up and running. The first people in should be the customers and they might ask if we had a network blip.
That comment was for CISA. Make the above step 1 in chaos monkey tests for all corporations and governments and make live testing required by law to be publicly traded. This testing must be performed annually in a staging environment in every data-center to remain listed on the stock market or remain funded in government budgets. If code exists on a machine that need not be there it's a security incident. Let's not have another Sony/Tri-Star.
> If the code is there I assume it is running.
This is such a bizarre and dishonest mindset.
Windows also has code to allow automatic login without a password. Do you assume because the feature exists, it’s going to be enabled after an OS update?
What about the code to enable remote access for support purposes? That exists for a while, but people aren’t freaking out about it existing.
I am sure people disagree with me and agree with you. Fact is if I bundled up the latest version of Windows, Mac, BSD, Linux malware and ransomeware most here would be hesitant to copy it to their workstations, dev/qd, staging and production servers even if they did not wish to execute it. Very few would be able to prove it was never executed much less be able to prove what the code did or did not do.
If it's not needed it's gotta go especially if it can talk to the network or modify data/code that can talk to the network. I will always assume it is or was running, period full stop.
I'm pretty sure the combined power of HN can figure out how to put an Ubuntu installer on a thumb drive and reboot.