Brave Browser Blocks Microsoft Recall By Default (brave.com) 42
The Brave Browser now blocks Microsoft Recall by default for Windows 11+ users, preventing the controversial screenshot-logging feature from capturing any Brave tabs -- regardless of whether users are in private mode. Brave cites persistent privacy concerns and potential abuse scenarios as justification. From a blog post: Microsoft has, to their credit, made several security and privacy-positive changes to Recall in response to concerns. Still, the feature is in preview, and Microsoft plans to roll it out more widely soon. What exactly the feature will look like when it's fully released to all Windows 11 users is still up in the air, but the initial tone-deaf announcement does not inspire confidence.
Given Brave's focus on privacy-maximizing defaults and what is at stake here (your entire browsing history), we have proactively disabled Recall for all Brave tabs. We think it's vital that your browsing activity on Brave does not accidentally end up in a persistent database, which is especially ripe for abuse in highly-privacy-sensitive cases such as intimate partner violence.
Microsoft has said that private browsing windows on browsers will not be saved as snapshots. We've extended that logic to apply to all Brave browser windows. We tell the operating system that every Brave tab is 'private', so Recall never captures it. This is yet another example of how Brave engineers are able to quickly tweak Chromium's privacy functionality to make Brave safer for our users (inexhaustive list here). For more technical details, see the pull request implementing this feature. Brave is the only major Web browser that disables Microsoft Recall by default in all tabs.
Given Brave's focus on privacy-maximizing defaults and what is at stake here (your entire browsing history), we have proactively disabled Recall for all Brave tabs. We think it's vital that your browsing activity on Brave does not accidentally end up in a persistent database, which is especially ripe for abuse in highly-privacy-sensitive cases such as intimate partner violence.
Microsoft has said that private browsing windows on browsers will not be saved as snapshots. We've extended that logic to apply to all Brave browser windows. We tell the operating system that every Brave tab is 'private', so Recall never captures it. This is yet another example of how Brave engineers are able to quickly tweak Chromium's privacy functionality to make Brave safer for our users (inexhaustive list here). For more technical details, see the pull request implementing this feature. Brave is the only major Web browser that disables Microsoft Recall by default in all tabs.
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So (Score:5, Insightful)
So, telling Microsoft's Windows not to enable Recall on tabs by simply telling Windows they are all private is going to ensure they never get copied? I don't think so, this is Microsoft we are dealing with here. One simple update "mistake", or forced feature enabled for "your" protection, can make this all moot. Simply stop feeding the Microsoft beast people.
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We just covered this on a Slashdot story further up: https://tech.slashdot.org/stor... [slashdot.org]
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You think I'm a conspiracy theorist after 30+ years of Microsoft's antics? LOL
OK? (Score:1)
The 15 people using the Brave browser that are also too stupid to disable an optional windows feature will be very excited.
Re:OK? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not so much a matter of "stupid" as Microsoft hiding how to turn it off, and deciding to override your decision and turn it back on later.
Stupid would be thinking Windows obeys you. It obeys Microsoft, and they demonstrate at every turn that they don't particularly care what you want, or what you choose on their menu.
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Re: OK? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: OK? (Score:2)
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How many "simple switches" get to the point of "too many" for the average user to 1. know about 2.
Literally all of them are in the same place located in the obvious Settings > Privacy and Security part of the systems settings. If you're privacy concerned you can literally just open that one menu and toggle everything off.
It's not complex, it's not difficult, it's definitely not hidden. But I do agree with you that some people may be too stupid to use computers.
Re: OK? (Score:2)
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It's not so much a matter of "stupid" as Microsoft hiding how to turn it off, and deciding to override your decision and turn it back on later.
I hope they try than in Europe. Could get their OS banned. Or maybe a $1B fine.
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Microsoft hiding how to turn it off
It has a dedicated tab including a toggle right at the top to disable it under Settings > Privacy and Security.
If you mean they are "hiding how to turn it off" by putting it in the most painfully obvious place to look and control a feature, then sure. That's not how the word "hiding" works but sure buddy.
Also there are 3 other ways to disable recall beyond the most blindingly obvious.
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Brave is actually a pretty good browser with very nice and effective ad-blocking. Seems to me you are crapping on something you do not actually know. Does not speak well of you.
Re: OK? (Score:3)
We switched away from Windows to Linux and macOS years ago for much less serious issues, namely innumerable software updates wasting time and bandwidth. As a small company, we could not afford Microsoftâ(TM)s âoesolutions.â
Best decision we ever made.
You can't. Hand over your screenshots. (Score:2)
Microsoft made sure that there is no way to do this with a plugin in Edge.
Mozilla asleep at the wheel (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Mozilla asleep at the wheel (Score:5, Insightful)
>"The fact that Mozilla allowing this to happen tells me that they are no longer effective at their mission."
1) They aren't "allowing" anything to happen. There is no setting in Firefox or Thunderbird that says "yeah, please record all my stuff." This is/was a Microsoft decision. No such problem on any other platform.
2) Why should it be up to the APPLICATION to decide to block this privacy raping?
3) How long has this option to ask this specific OS not not record been out? It is a little soon to "condemn" Mozilla for not having this single-platform hackery option yet. Recall, itself, is still just a preview. For all we know, the entire thing might evaporate in a few months.
4) If you are really concerned about privacy, I would first point at the OS this whole thing is about.
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1) They aren't "allowing" anything to happen.
Implicitly they are, that's how these features with blocking APIs work.
2) Why should it be up to the APPLICATION to decide to block this privacy raping?
Because only a small subset of applications are sensitive and would be required to disable this. It's the same with screenshotting. There's a difference between screenshotting a meme and your banking app. The OS can't know something is sensitive unless the app tells it.
If you the user are concerned about a feature (that keeps all data encrypted on your local machine) the feature can be trivially disabled.
3) How long has this option to ask this specific OS not not record been out?
Since the first preview build.
4) If you are really concerned about privacy, I would first point at the OS this whole thing is about.
The
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Such catastrophic breach of privacy, also known as Microsoft Recall, should not be allowed to record your PDF window. The fact that Adobe is allowing this to happen tells me that they are no longer effective at their mission. How dare Adobe not invent a way to block an experimental feature that isn't fielded yet to preserve the privacy of PDF documents that are being edited or viewed. The horror! /s
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Currently MS Recall is installed on a minority of Windows systems and where is installed, users can disable it completely in the Settings app.
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Currently MS Recall is installed on a minority of Windows systems
Not even that many.... it's a feature on Copilot+ PCs - so unless everyone suddenly rushed out and purchased a Copilot+ machine, the bleating is hot garbage.
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So you intentionally purchased a Copilot+ machine?
No? Well... makes your whine seem a little less rational now, doesn't it.
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Those that do put up with it, it's because they have something akin to Stockholm syndrome, or whatever makes people stay in abusive relationships, or maybe it's akin to addiction. They're convinced they need Microsoft and things would be worse without Windows, so tell themselves whatever Microsof
Unbelievable (Score:5, Interesting)
Cant believe they went through with that Recall shit.
Re:Unbelievable (Score:4, Insightful)
Pure desperation. They still have no meaningful application for all the money they poured into LLMs.
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Why? Most people actually don't care / don't understand how it works or why the should like it or not. To them it is just a feature that works the way marketing tells them it works.
I absolutely can believe every company goes through with every feature they propose: because they think they can make money doing it.
Re: Unbelievable (Score:2)
In your previous comments you argued how clear and easy it is to understand and disable Recall. Here you appear to be making a contradictory argument, but in both cases you defend Recall. Why?
Good (Score:4, Interesting)
I use Brave as my 2nd browser, for some things that do not work in Vivaldi. It is a pretty nice browser and things like that tell me they are serious in serving a specific user group.
Re: Good (Score:1)
Brave on Android is the only adblock technique in aware of, so I use Brave to open the Chrome landing page clickbait articles on my phone, like phys.org - those are sometimes interesting but full of ads. Share link --> Brave, and suddenly the article is much more readable.
Brave is the best browser now (Score:3, Informative)
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Microsoft Recall is Spyware (Score:2)