The Technological Panopticon Grows Stronger.
For the first time today at work, the CFO of a client of ours requested to know how long one of their employees was actively working on their computer from home using the Windows Recall function.
Dozens of headlines I've seen over the past months about the dangerous usage of Recall finally landed in my lap. A real life person whom I've known and worked with for years has just asked me to let them spy on their employee.
Reality is very suddenly becoming stranger than fiction. It almost feels comical that something like this is happening. Most of my job is helping people fix their emails and whatever specialized software their company uses. Now, Microsoft has thrust upon IT workers of the world the new task of helping employers spy on their employees to know if they are actually working or not.
This is new ground for me specifically. IT support tools are incredibly powerful and if wielded by the wrong person can cause an insane amount of damage. It's very important that these tools are used with discretion by properly trained individuals with a sound ethical compass. The tools we use grant a ludicrous amount of access to information and data. That is why it is so important that accounts are secured nowadays. When I connect to someone's computer, it alerts the user that there is someone connected and can see what they are doing. It is very obvious so that way people know what is going on.
Microsoft wants to give employers access to these tools through Windows Recall.
Imagine that your boss can scrub through your day's worth of work, view what you were seeing on your computer screen at any point throughout the day, completely unannounced.
Coming from an IT perspective, this is psychotic. This is sci-fi dystopia levels of surveillance. If I used the tools given to me to spy on my coworkers, I would be fired on the spot, but because this is being used by management to track employees, it is passed off as completely fine.
Imagine that you used a password manager at work to log into your bank, now your boss can see your credentials too. Or imagine that you received an email about some very personal details about your life, your family, your employer can now play and pause that moment. Even if you aren't looking at sensitive information on your computer, is it really this necessary for your employer to be keeping track of you so closely?
If it hasn't become obvious, Windows Recall is definitionally spyware. If it were not from Microsoft, my anti-virus would nuke the computer on the spot.
For years, Microsoft has eroded trust with their users. Though they have mentioned they will make Recall an "opt-in" feature (though this doesn't actually seem to be the case) and a few other hand-waving promises to quell the fervour of the online hatred, they simply don't have consumer interest in mind, nor their trust.
As for the professional side of this, we are kind of fucked to be honest.
For years Microsoft has been dropping the ball on Windows and their other applications, enshitifying and making them so much worse to use for consumers, admins and developers that nobody is really satisfied with them now. What options remain?
Switching the operating systems of clients is not at all feasible. Training hundreds if not thousands of technologically illiterate people who have used Windows for years to something user-friendly like MacOS or Linux is just flat-out impossible for a few reasons:
Almost every company has an established infrastructure set up on Windows already. Not only do people rely on the convenience of OneDrive and Sharepoint, but specific programs and server-side applications designed for that company is still very common and they are usually all designed for Windows server and consumer platforms. If you want to contact developers who might be long dead to get them to adapt their programs to MacOS or Linux, be my guest.
MacOS is user-friendly, not admin-friendly. As an IT consultant, it is nigh impossible to get anything done on a Mac because they are so locked up and purposely made impossible to work with to retain their sleek appearances. As a result, not a lot of custom software functions on a Mac, if you want to try using Wine, good luck, and godspeed when you try to train an end-user how to actually use it. They are also expensive pieces of paperweight that need to have very specific hardware to work and are simply not as effective as their Windows counterparts. If I delivered an iMac to a CAD user, I would be laughed out of the room.
Linux is a playground full of sharp tools. I would never deploy a Linux system for a technologically illiterate end-user, even if it has a Windows-like skin. You would need to run back and forth every 15 minutes to explain to them that "no, this is not Windows". The underlying functionality is like a clock with exposed gears that an idiotic end user would end up jamming their metaphorical hand in their and cause so many problems that it would be easier to nuke and pave. The only case in which I would ever do such a thing is if a company already has Linux infrastructure and the end-user distros are locked-down machines that do not let users do anything they shouldn't, even then, I'd be wary.
There are probably hundreds more reasons why such a transition could not happen, these are just three large ones that I bounced off the top of the dome.
So, what are we left to do then?
Unfortunately, we have to continue working with Microsoft Windows. Their horrific monopoly over the professional sector of computing has made it impossible, or at least unfeasible, to transition to a different operating system. Everything professionally is constructed for Windows. CAD software, accounting software, administrative software, everything. We are going to be forced to put up with it.
It feels bizarre, waiting for an alternative that might never come. It feel more likely that we just have to wait for the complete collapse of Microsoft to have a chance at trying something new.
-bzg