Rob Braxman is a tech and privacy expert whose YouTube videos I always find enlightening. In this one, he explains that Microsoft is facing a consumer backlash not only for introducing annoying changes but for essentially trying to force Windows users to use its cloud-dependent AI platform that collects and analyzes user data.
Windows has rolled out its Copilot integration, which includes a creepy feature called Windows Recall that constantly captures images of your screen.
The supposed appeal of introduced AI features is convenience, like being able to quickly find specific photos from your collection, to cite an example that Braxman gives.
However, it also entails Microsoft acquiring massive amounts of data about the user into its cloud platform, raising serious privacy concerns.
We also know from Edward Snowden's disclosures about the National Security Agency's (NSA) surveillance of Americans that Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook, and others have been compelled to provide user data to intellience agencies. One such program was called PRISM, under which companies complied with orders to provide user data under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has also developed tools to exploit vulnerabilities in Windows and other software, as exposed by WikiLeaks.
As a Windows user myself, I first started to catch on to what Microsoft was doing when Outlook started prompting me to migrate to the "New" version. I never did so because when toggling on that option, it prompts you to agree to sync all your email accounts' data to the Microsoft cloud.
Hell no!
I just stayed with the old Outlook assuming this was basically still in beta, and that eventually, surely, the cloud-sync option could be declined when moving to the new version.
But as time passed and I kept checking, it started to become clear to me that Microsoft ultimately aimed to force me to use their cloud to continue using Outlook.
So, I ditched Outlook altogether and switched to Mozilla Thunderbird, a free email client from the creators of the Firefox web browser.
After discovering Braxman's channel, I was glad to see him confirm my choice by also recommending Thunderbird.
Relatedly, I stopped using Google's Chrome browser years ago, and while I did use Firefox as my main browser for a while, I ultimately settled on Brave browser, which is build on Chromium, the open-source platform that Google's proprietary Chrome browser s built upon. Brave is a privacy-oriented browser, and being build on Chromium means you can still use extensions from the Chrome extension repository.
Visitors to my website JeremyRHammond.com will also be happy to know that I ditched Google Analytics last year, which means no Google tracking code or cookies. I explained that move, and how I switched to a self-hosted alternative, in this post:
Around that same time, I also posted about how Google has been similarly moving users, without their knowledge, into a system of AI data tracking. I explained how auto-enabled Gemini AI tracking features can be disabled in Google Messenger and Gemail in this post:
Check out Rob Braxman's YouTube channel for great info on privacy and security.
It would be too time-consuming a migration for me anytime soon, but another step I'd like to take in the future is to ditch Windows altogether and move to a Linux OS.
Let me know in the comments what steps you take to protect your online privacy and security, including any alternative software recommendations!
