#spyware software

[nando161mando]

[alicepao13]

So, this is a prime example of fearmongering. Listen up, folks.

First of all, this is outdated information which is still getting reblogged because that's the way Tumblr works. Second, there's a high chance your PC is not even eligible for getting Windows Recall, as it apparently needs at least 16GB of RAM and other requirements. Third, Windows Recall is available on Copilot+ PCs (source). If you have Windows 11 it DOES NOT mean that you also have Windows Recall, which is mentioned NOWHERE above. Getting a Copilot+ PC is pretty much recommended for people who want to run AI powered programs, like LLMs, Stable Diffusion, etc. Windows is promoting these PCs using the phrase "A new AI era begins" which shows their intended market. So, if you got that kind of PC you probably did it for its ability to handle AI related software, and you might actually want Windows Recall, or that's Microsoft's logic at least. Furthermore, snapshots are stored locally (meaning on your PC only and not on some cloud), which is not mentioned in any of the above posts either.

"There is no way to remove it" Microsoft gives instructions on how to disable the snapchat feature in their own website https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/privacy-and-control-over-your-recall-experience-d404f672-7647-41e5-886c-a3c59680af15 so you don't need to open the freaking command center and touch your registry, and please don't type random commands that people suggest to you online when you don't know what they might do. Please.

Is Windows Recall in anyway useful? Probably not for the majority of users. But I don't see why there should be much cause for upset.

Literal definition of spyware:

Also From Microsoft’s own FAQ: "Note that Recall does not perform content moderation. It will not hide information such as passwords or financial account numbers. 🤡

[luulapants]

25 ways to be a little more punk in 2025

Cut fast fashion - buy used, learn to mend and/or make your own clothes, buy fewer clothes less often so you can save up for ethically made quality

Cancel subscriptions - relearn how to pirate media, spend $10/month buying a digital album from a small artist instead of on Spotify, stream on free services since the paid ones make you watch ads anyway

Green your community - there's lots of ways to do this, like seedbombing or joining a community garden or organizing neighborhood trash pickups

Be kind - stop to give directions, check on stopped cars, smile at kids, let people cut you in line, offer to get stuff off the high shelf, hold the door, ask people if they're okay

Intervene - learn bystander intervention techniques and be prepared to use them, even if it feels awkward

Get closer to your food - grow it yourself, can and preserve it, buy from a farmstand, learn where it's from, go fishing, make it from scratch, learn a new ingredient

Use opensource software - try LibreOffice, try Reaper, learn Linux, use a free Photoshop clone. The next time an app tries to force you to pay, look to see if there's an opensource alternative

Make less trash - start a compost, be mindful of packaging, find another use for that plastic, make it a challenge for yourself!

Get involved in local politics - show up at meetings for city council, the zoning commission, the park district, school boards; fight the NIMBYs that always show up and force them to focus on the things impacting the most vulnerable folks in your community

DIY > fashion - shake off the obsession with pristine presentation that you've been taught! Cut your own hair, use homemade cosmetics, exchange mani/pedis with friends, make your own jewelry, duct tape those broken headphones!

Ditch Google - Chromium browsers (which is almost all of them) are now bloated spyware, and Google search sucks now, so why not finally make the jump to Firefox and another search like DuckDuckGo? Or put the Wikipedia app on your phone and look things up there?

Forage - learn about local edible plants and how to safely and sustainably harvest them or go find fruit trees and such accessible to the public.

Volunteer - every week tutoring at the library or once a month at the humane society or twice a year serving food at the soup kitchen, you can find something that matches your availability

Help your neighbors - which means you have to meet them first and find out how you can help (including your unhoused neighbors), like elderly or disabled folks that might need help with yardwork or who that escape artist dog belongs to or whether the police have been hassling people sleeping rough

Fix stuff - the next time something breaks (a small appliance, an electronic, a piece of furniture, etc.), see if you can figure out what's wrong with it, if there are tutorials on fixing it, or if you can order a replacement part from the manufacturer instead of trashing the whole thing

Mix up your transit - find out what's walkable, try biking instead of driving, try public transit and complain to the city if it sucks, take a train instead of a plane, start a carpool at work

Engage in the arts - go see a local play, check out an art gallery or a small museum, buy art from the farmer's market

Go to the library - to check out a book or a movie or a CD, to use the computers or the printer, to find out if they have other weird rentals like a seed library or luggage, to use meeting space, to file your taxes, to take a class, to ask question

Listen local - see what's happening at local music venues or other events where local musicians will be performing, stop for buskers, find a favorite artist, and support them

Buy local - it's less convenient than online shopping or going to a big box store that sells everything, but try buying what you can from small local shops in your area

Become unmarketable - there are a lot of ways you can disrupt your online marketing surveillance, including buying less, using decoy emails, deleting or removing permissions from apps that spy on you, checking your privacy settings, not clicking advertising links, and...

Use cash - go to the bank and take out cash instead of using your credit card or e-payment for everything! It's better on small businesses and it's untraceable

Give what you can - as capitalism churns on, normal shmucks have less and less, so think about what you can give (time, money, skills, space, stuff) and how it will make the most impact

Talk about wages - with your coworkers, with your friends, while unionizing! Stop thinking about wages as a measure of your worth and talk about whether or not the bosses are paying fairly for the labor they receive

Think about wealthflow - there are a thousand little mechanisms that corporations and billionaires use to capture wealth from the lower class: fees for transactions, interest, vendor platforms, subscriptions, and more. Start thinking about where your money goes, how and where it's getting captured and removed from our class, and where you have the ability to cut off the flow and pass cash directly to your fellow working class people

[rocket-penguin]

Getting to the point I think the only way I can keep running windows is to blacklist every microsoft domain and IP address in my router.

[greatrunner]

The way Microsoft is just being allowed to do this shit really communicates just how invested (financially) the entire tech industry is in state surveillance and keeping track of every single damn thing you do.

When the last update stuck it on my taskbar, I had to look up how to disable Microsoft CoPilot. No matter how often you go into the nitty gritty of your Microsoft computer, any given update will slap Microsft Edge back on your OS (if it was ever removed).

I heard Microsoft is plotting to make it so that you can't use any browser except Edge on computers using their OS.

Privacy and choice are effectively something none of us are owed, and I really fucking wish people were more up in arms about it instead of allowing their rights to be trampled on.

At a Build conference event on Monday, Microsoft revealed a new AI-powered feature called "Recall" for Copilot+ PCs that will allow Windows 11 users to search and retrieve their past activities on their PC. To make it work, Recall records everything users do on their PC, including activities in apps, communications in live meetings, and websites visited for research. Despite encryption and local storage, the new feature raises privacy concerns for certain Windows users.

They used to call stuff that did this this spyware.

[nyano64]

i NEEDED to start learning pine phone shit YESTERDAY.

[cassandraturcotte]

Tips for a Healthy Bossware Culture

This infographic provides actionable tips to build a healthy Bossware culture, including promoting transparency about monitoring practices.

[nando161mando]

Cobwebs Spy Software Locks Onto Protesters: Israeli Social Media Mining homeland security contractor

[diagnozabam]

Mandrake: O Nouă Campanie de Spyware Identificată pe Google Play

Descoperirea și Impactul Campaniei Mandrake Cercetătorii de la Kaspersky au dezvăluit o campanie de spyware sofisticată folosind malware-ul Mandrake, ascuns în aplicații aparent legitime pe Google Play. Această campanie, activă de aproximativ doi ani, a infectat peste 32.000 de dispozitive înainte de a fi detectată. Caracteristicile Malware-ului Mandrake Mandrake a fost inițial identificat de…

[filehulk]

SpyHunter

SpyHunter is a powerful tool for detecting and removing the latest spyware, trojans, rootkits, ransomware, keyloggers, and other malicious software on Windows PCs. Designed for everyday users, SpyHunter provides an effective solution for identifying and eliminating harmful threats. Developed by Enigma Software, SpyHunter specializes in detecting and removing various forms of malware, such as…

[agentfascinateur]

Israelis can't accuse others of cyber crimes

Israeli officials seized documents about Pegasus spyware from its manufacturer, NSO Group, in an effort to prevent the company from being able to comply with demands made by WhatsApp in a US court to hand over information about the invasive technology.

...

Pegasus allows NSO clients to infect smartphones with hidden software that can extract messages and photos, record calls and secretly activate microphones.

[dvandom]

In the process of setting up a Win11 machine, so definitely adding these to my list of stuff to install.

Literal definition of spyware:

Also From Microsoft’s own FAQ: "Note that Recall does not perform content moderation. It will not hide information such as passwords or financial account numbers. 🤡

[nando161mando]

"My experience with Windows 10 was me turning off the "Bing" features, and one day turning on my computer and discovering overnight with an automatic update Microsoft had turned them back on, and everything I typed into the Start search was being forwarded to a network service. This happened more than once.

It won't be enough to turn Windows 11's "AI" surveillance features off. Based on how they behaved with Win10, you have to assume a feature you turn off today will be silently turned on later."

[wingedd20]

They know everything you do. My mother is looking at getting another car, so they are targeting me with used car adds now. Privacy is a modern invention, and we are letting the information age destroy it.