Signal Deploys DRM To Block Microsoft Recall's Invasive Screenshot Collection (betanews.com) 55
BrianFagioli writes: Signal has officially had enough, folks. You see, the privacy-first messaging app is going on the offensive, declaring war on Microsoft's invasive Recall feature by enabling a new "Screen security" setting by default on Windows 11. This move is designed to block Microsoft's AI-powered screenshot tool from capturing your private chats.
If you aren't aware, Recall was first unveiled a year ago as part of Microsoft's Copilot+ PC push. The feature quietly took screenshots of everything happening on your computer, every few seconds, storing them in a searchable timeline. Microsoft claimed it would help users "remember" what they've done. Critics called it creepy. Security experts called it dangerous. The backlash was so fierce that Microsoft pulled the feature before launch.
But now, in a move nobody asked for, Recall is sadly back. And thankfully, Signal isn't waiting around this time. The team has activated a Windows 11-specific DRM flag that completely blacks out Signal's chat window when a screenshot is attempted. If you've ever tried to screen grab a streaming movie, you'll know the result: nothing but black.
If you aren't aware, Recall was first unveiled a year ago as part of Microsoft's Copilot+ PC push. The feature quietly took screenshots of everything happening on your computer, every few seconds, storing them in a searchable timeline. Microsoft claimed it would help users "remember" what they've done. Critics called it creepy. Security experts called it dangerous. The backlash was so fierce that Microsoft pulled the feature before launch.
But now, in a move nobody asked for, Recall is sadly back. And thankfully, Signal isn't waiting around this time. The team has activated a Windows 11-specific DRM flag that completely blacks out Signal's chat window when a screenshot is attempted. If you've ever tried to screen grab a streaming movie, you'll know the result: nothing but black.
Class Action Suit - CA District Attn May Be Called (Score:3)
Re: Class Action Suit - CA District Attn May Be Ca (Score:2)
When you bought a computer with an operating system where the license agreement gives the publisher the right to take any data they want from your PC and show it to anyone for any reason they deem necessary, yes you absolutely did. This is literally exactly what you bargained for, assuming you did any bargaining and didn't just throw money. Otherwise it's just exactly what you paid for.
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When I bought a computer, this is not what I bargained for.
Please sue Microsoft, it's fun watching idiots get thrown out in court. What exactly did you bargain for with your Windows license purchase? You read the terms of service right? How does the existence of a feature (which you can turn off) somehow make you think you or anyone else have standing to bring a case against MS in court?
Be specific. Otherwise people may think you're quite silly for making a "derp derp class action!" comment.
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"I am altering the deal. Pray I do not alter it any further."
Re: Class Action Suit - CA District Attn May Be Ca (Score:1)
I don't have Signal (Score:2)
...does this mean I can install Signal, never use it, but get this feature?
It SEEMS that this only will black out signal's chat window, presumably only when it has focus.
I wonder how much I could pay for such a feature 24/7?
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I can't believe people still use Windows when there are good alternatives.
Just dump it.
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The problem is people love familiarity. People generally dislike change of any kind and thus will put up with an absurd amount of inconvenience just to avoid having to change to something unfamiliar. On top of that, having to take any level of responsibility for their own system is generally beyond the pale. The final piece is the unknown. When people don't know about the alternatives, they rely on either dated information/experiences or word-of-mouth both of which are unreliable in the context of technolog
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People generally dislike change of any kind and thus will put up with an absurd amount of inconvenience just to avoid having to change to something unfamiliar
There is a cost to every UI change that I don't believe most programmers realize exists (or if they do, they often minimize it as programmers tend to be very good at adapting). People who aren't adept at thinking the way computers "think" learn how to get their tasks done with a given UI. Then it changes and they take a while to adjust to the new UI (cursing all the way). Then it changes again. And again.
Moving from one environment (e.g. Windows) to another (e.g. Mac or some window manager in Linux) is even
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The problem is people love familiarity. People generally dislike change of any kind
That is only half the reason. The other one is people are lazy. So lazy that they will not preemptively look at learning alternatives but will retro actively be force to learn even bigger changes.
Case in point. The changes from Win7 to Win8 where huge due to Microsoft's misguide attempt to unify the look and feel of the desktop and mobile offerings. At that time my elderly parents need to update their laptop and were bewildered by Win8 when they saw it in store. As a long time Linux user I took one
Re: I don't have Signal (Score:1)
Re: I don't have Signal (Score:2)
"certainly none are more secure"
[citation needed]
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Are you able to recommend a better IM that the average person can master?
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Do other systems track you every move?
Re: I don't have Signal (Score:2)
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Bear in mind such a feature also makes it impossible for you to make your own screenshots. In this case only of the Signal window, but if you had the feature you're asking for, of everything. At best you could take a photo of the screen with your phone.
There's probably an undocumented hack to turn off Recall, maybe setting permissions on the folder it uses or something. Once someone has a method it needs an active effort to ensure the knowledge is shared and known by everyone. Unfortunately, in a world wher
Re:I don't have Signal (Score:4, Interesting)
When you actively have to resort to undocumented hacks to get your OS to do what you want, especially respecting your privacy, things are wrong in several ways. Probably the classic that you are not the consumer, but a resource (in this case, most things you write or view) being used and monetised. I could hope at least GDPR and somewhat better consumer protection laws could help users in the EU, but it still needs enforcement. Getting rid of that OS is of course preferred.
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When you actively have to resort to undocumented hacks
The only people who need to resort to undocumented hacks are those people too stupid to simply open the settings and toggle the feature off. It's in not one, but TWO places in the control panel.
It's truly amazing that people like you and the GP comment on things talking about hacks and legal protections without even taking 5 seconds to see how a feature works. But I guess that is the modern discourse, I'm sure it was far more important for you to say something rather than actually know something.
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I said nothing about legal protections, and the last time I looked Microsoft had gone out of its way to make it a mandatory feature. If that's changed, that's great news, but it certainly wasn't well publicized.
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There's probably an undocumented hack to turn off Recall
I'm sure there is, but why bother when you can simply toggle recall off in not one but *two* difference places in Windows? (You can get to the setting either in the start menu settings or in the privacy settings).
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The fact that M$ turn it on by default says a lot about the relationship between Microsoft and the users of their software.
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There's probably an undocumented hack to turn off Recall
The flame bait answer it to switch from Window to Linux.
.. 2 .. 1.
Modding down in 3
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I wonder how much I could pay for such a feature 24/7?
You could pay all the money you have because I'll do it for all the money you have. :)
Hint: create a service to check and disable the recall service
Better hint: Stop using Windows, you clod!
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It is just an API. Just write your own softwarwe and you can use the feature.
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Why would you need Signal for that? It's just the equivalent of the Android FLAG_SECURE thing that should protect your banking apps (which often do not use it) and is used by streaming services so you don't dare to take a screenshot of a copyrighted movie. Microsoft added something similar and it seems they also advertise it as DRM and not as security (or at least the article here does).
great (Score:1)
DRM can be good (Score:4, Interesting)
Everyone always shits on DRM, but it's nice to know there are some positive use cases.
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Digital Restriction Management is just a mechanism. And how to do it right has always been clear: It is under control of the device owner and applications can merely make suggestions as to how it should be configured. Obviously, MS does not want that and the aim of MS DRM is to restrict the user. The use bu Signal here is the opposite and I have no doubt the user can switch this off after having read (and then typically ignored) a clear warning.
Security Features can be good (Score:2)
Security Features can be good. DRM is a set of security features used by companies to secure their content against the user. If you use security features, e.g., to prevent other software from reading your Signal messages, it is in principle no DRM. As I wrote above, Android just calls it secure windows and advertises the API for banking apps and other apps that show sensitive data. Nevertheless Netflix uses it to prevent screenshots ...
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Only there's not, because this is implemented in software by MS they can easily make an exception for recall so it can still take screenshots.
Meanwhile you as a user cannot make an exception for something you might actually want.
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The problem is I have to now run code, to prevent the functionality of code that I don’t want to run anyway.
Besides the privacy and performance problems (Score:3)
Has the internet fills up with AI slop it's going to become impossible for anyone to just spin up an AI based on freely available data. That's a one-time Bonanza that only applies to early adopters. Also early adopters with big pockets so they can fight off the lawsuits for copyright infringement but that's besides the point.
That's going to mean anyone who controls a platform is going to have a huge edge because they will know who is and isn't a bot. It's relatively easy to spot a bot if you have platform control because humans behave in very peculiar ways that are very difficult to replicate with a bot.
So Microsoft has all the things you do on your computer. They pump that into their AI models and they have highly effective models while they're competition struggles because it's training off of freely available internet data that is filled with garbage created by other AI models.
Or at least that's the plan. I think it will probably work because everything is so shit now. I don't have any faith in anything that isn't evil anymore. November kind of beat that out of me.
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You are not wrong. I do expect that a smaller, non-AI Internet will survive though. The main platforms are done for though. Just will take some time.
Or alternatively, all that LLM crap will go away again. Could happen if nobody manages to make it cost-effective and that is a very real possibility.
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I bet we'll just end up using more bots to filter out the annoying bots. Of course those making the filter-bots will also deploy spam-bots to make sure their filter-bots are valuable.
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At the moment the filtering is pretty easy. Unless they make it "One world, one web, one program" (which would massively run into anti-trust law), they will need to stay pretty compatible with alls orts of browsers. And that means filtering is relatively simple.
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I'm not so sure the one-time-bonanza will be because of lawsuits but rather because the info will be withdrawn due to unsustainable burden of untold AI-bots crawling everywhere all the time. The Web itself may be in jeopardy here.
Most dont care (Score:2)
Most users donâ(TM)t or wonâ(TM)t care about their precious data until it leaks. Internet users have been handing over a treasure trove of data for decades now without a care in the world. If you own a computer, it spies on you. If you use a phone, someone is spying on you. If you go on the internet, someone is spying on you. If you use a VPN, someone is spying on you. If you drive a car, someone is spying on you. If you walk down the street, hundreds if not thousands of cameras are spying on you.
Signal didn't deploy no DRM, (Score:2)
it merely piggybacks on Microsoft's DRM.
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No. They are using OS DRM services, but the DRM is theirs. I wonder whether Microsoft will attemt to block this use. They clearly want to eventually sell all the data about all their users.
A sad state of affairs (Score:2)
When the OS maker has to be classified as malicious attacker. And Microsoft by now certainly deserves that classification. Why are we using this crap?
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When the OS maker has to be classified as malicious attacker. And Microsoft by now certainly deserves that classification. Why are we using this crap?
Idiots. They've long been their own malware, they might as well finish it. to constant monitoring of their computers.
Watch the replies of "But I have to!"
Actually many people have (Score:2)
Do Something: CA District Attny Office Contact (Score:3)
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That seems like a lot of effort, why not just turn the feature off? It's right there in the menu options. But sure waste the California DoJ's (and your own) time instead...
I don't buy this (Score:2)