I haven't used or installed Windows as an OS is probably 5+ years. And I haven't even touched it in probably 2+ years.

Microsoft Recall feels like a fever dream from an alternate universe. I'm in denial; I refuse to believe it exists.

When Windows 10~ dropped, I read about Bitlocker. It gives Microsoft full unfettered access to your hard drive.

I said: "Hey this seems like kinda a bad idea, right? Microsoft has access to all your things..."

Forums and people said "Nah that's SO MUCH data, Microsoft couldn't possibly store it all, let alone parse it".

Imo Recall is proof they can and have been doing just that.

My question: Why don't more people care?

Might be flirting with conspiracy theorists with this one but it's exceptionally unsettling how close the US and other governments are to Microsoft.

If MS has access to literally every last ounce of your data, governments do too.

We all can agree THAT is a bad thing, right?...

This was the attitude about Bitlocker almost 10 years ago.

We need a lesson about hubris and how dangerous it can be.

@egeexyz
Wait, bitlocker? The full disk encryption program?
I think you have it mixed up with something else. If Bitlocker was uploading full image copies of your disk to Microsoft, I'm pretty sure the internet at my old job would have drowned in traffic when we rolled it out across all our laptops.

I could understand the encryption keys being snarfed for the sake of user convenience though. Key escrow was a concern during our research phase, but Microsoft had a business solution for that already.

@egeexyz
Recall can go die in a fire for sure. But bitlocker? That can stay. It fills out some required (or sometimes mandatory) boxes on a bunch of security/compliance checklists.

@shininghero It's baffling how big business and enterprise use Bitlocker when it gives MS direct access to the files.

I guess it's the same as storing confidential information in S3; technically AWS has access to it, especially if you use KMS.

@egeexyz Oh! Hang on, I think you've mixed up Bitlocker with OneDrive. That one makes way more sense for this sort of stuff.

Honestly, the simple answer is that it's cheap (the basic O365 E1 plan gives 1TB of storage for $8/month), and companies generally expect their employees to not be doing illegal stuff on their rented cloud infrastructure.

@egeexyz
Also, Bitlocker is used extensively in federal infrastructure. So much so, that the lack of it is considered a security finding.
https://stigviewer.com/stig/windows_10/2021-08-18/finding/V-220702

If Microsoft was using Bitlocker to siphon data, the US Government would have banned it from being used internally.

Windows 10 information systems must use BitLocker to encrypt all disks to protect the confidentiality and integrity of all information at rest.

Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs) that provides a methodology for standardized secure installation and maintenance of DOD IA and IA-enabled devices and systems.

STIG Viewer | Unified Compliance Framework®

@shininghero Fair but much like AWS KMS, clients can bring their own keys so daddy won't have access.

My point in all of this is that the "grey area" is too large for my comfort. On Linux, there is 0.0000% chance anyone has access to my system(s) but me.

My perspective hasn't changed in 10 years and Recall fuels my silly conspiracy leanings of Microsoft fueling their models with user data.

I know I'm crazy but I still refuse to believe Recall exists 😂