I was pondering about updating that dying w10 partition, just in case. Well, looks like someone else put the final nail in that coffin for me.
I asked copilot…
How would Microsoft loyalty to US or other government’s national security possibly compromise a user’s PC if that user gives copilot permission to operate their PC?
How national-security or law-enforcement demands could lead to compromise
- Compelled access to data Microsoft controls — If Microsoft stores or indexes any of your Copilot data in the cloud, Microsoft can be required by lawful process to produce that data to U.S. or other governments with legal jurisdiction.
- Compelled changes to services — Governments can issue orders that require providers to change logging, enable access, or install monitoring in ways that may be secret or accompanied by gag orders.
- Access to telemetry and diagnostics — Diagnostic or telemetry data that Copilot or Windows collects can include evidence of your activity and may be producible under legal request.
- Local features that capture content — Features designed to assist (for example, an automated “Recall” that snapshots screens) create local records of sensitive material that increase exposure risk if accessed by an authorized party.
- Remote-control or agent capabilities — If Copilot is granted elevated permissions (input control, script execution, system configuration), those same capabilities could be exercised under legal compulsion or via back-end access mechanisms.
- Software updates and maintenance — Lawful orders can compel vendors to ship updates or config changes that alter how a product behaves, increasing access to user systems.
Practical ways those legal obligations could manifest on your PC
- Production of synced or cloud-stored Copilot logs, prompts, or screenshots to authorities.
- Microsoft being required to provide live access or historical logs from back-end services that the Copilot agent uses.
- A secret court order or national security letter forcing Microsoft to enable additional logging, monitoring, or remote access for a targeted account or device.
- Disclosure of keys, tokens, or server-side records that tie on-device events to your identity.
Why elevated permissions matter
- Read access to files and memory lets an agent capture documents, credentials, or keys.
- Input/automation control enables actions on your behalf (open files, send messages, change settings).
- Persistence (services/agents) makes it easier for any compelled access to be effective and harder for you to detect or disable.
Risk-reduction steps you can take now
- Limit permissions: Grant only the minimal Copilot privileges needed; avoid giving input control, admin rights, or system-level automation.
- Disable features that capture content: Turn off any screen-snapshot or automatic indexing/Recall-like features if you don’t need them.
- Avoid cloud syncing for sensitive data: Keep sensitive files off services that sync or index them in the cloud.
- Prefer on-device-only models: Use local-only AI modes when available so prompts and context do not leave your machine.
- Use full-disk and file-level encryption with keys you control; avoid storing keys where the vendor could be compelled to retrieve them.
- Harden account security: Use strong, unique passwords and MFA on accounts tied to Copilot or Microsoft services.
- Audit logs and telemetry: Review and reduce diagnostic/telemetry settings; regularly review logs for unexpected activity.
- Segmentation: Use a separate machine or VM for highly sensitive work so a general-purpose Copilot-enabled device doesn’t hold those secrets.
- Legal & contractual protections: For high-risk contexts, seek contractual commitments, data residency options, or legal counsel about how a vendor handles lawful demands.
Quick practical checklist
- Turn off automatic screenshot/Recall features.
- Remove admin permissions from Copilot agent.
- Keep sensitive work on a non-synced, encrypted volume.
- Use local-only AI options where offered.
- Enable and monitor endpoint and network logging for unusual remote access.
Short conclusion Allowing Copilot to operate your PC raises the surface where lawful government demands or compelled actions could expose data or enable access. The likelihood and scope depend on which features you enable (especially cloud sync, screen capture, and elevated permissions) and the legal jurisdiction over the vendor or the data. Minimize permissions, disable content-capture features, and isolate truly sensitive workflows to reduce exposure.
So uhm, copilot just told us not to use these new copilot features.
But if copilot is untrust worthly according to copilot then why would you believe copilot?
it’s specifically saying that “one day” it will be made untrustworthy.
Great. Well I’m not pushing the update icon that’s been waiting on me for a few days. If Copilot is invasive and can’t be turned off, I may finally jump ship.
I’ve only owned windows machines… well since my first DOS machine in the 90s. I made the switch to Mac after hearing about the embedded Ads in 11.
I’m sure there are many more going to Linux.
Making every Windows 11 PC an AI PC
Great, so everything runs locally, making it a self-contained “AI PC”. Otherwise, the headline surely would’ve been, “Making every PC collect data to train Microsoft’s models with little benefit in return“. Right?
Oh boy I can’t wait to try out this new feature on my laptop that is forced to run Windows 11 because it’s a Windows on Arm device and Samsung fucked it up so much that they didn’t even include a device tree file in the BIOS so I can’t even reinstall Windows. As if I didn’t already block gemini using my DNS server and Bing and Microsoft Office servers as a whole. Who is this feature for anyway? Just for data collection for Microsoft? So they can leak more shit through copilot from the rest of the world and companies that are forced to use this dumb operating system? So they can auction off the data to 150 trackers and companies to make a bit more money for an operating system you sometimes have to pay money for? Man IT departments sometimes having to put more work in to disable copilot for Microsoft to also just go behind your fucking back and advertise to your users to use copilot on their phones instead. I hate this company with a burning passion in my heart and soul. They are just as evil and souless as Adobe when it comes to just stealing your data and I’m glad that there will be some effort to avoid Microsoft in the future from countries that is somewhat actually just happening. Google and their shit is just as bad though and I also wish them a quiet stay in fucking hell with gemini and whatnot and leaking of personal information already. I’m just done. No one wants AI and I’m tired of having it get shoved into everything.
What about the weak old Notebooks?
Pro tip: Buy great laptops on Marketplace, use Rufus to make an ISO which bypasses the RAM and TPM requirements and lets you make a local account, install Win11 and resell for 2x what you paid
I’ve been rolling in cash with this for the past month
E oh you guys don’t like that lmao 😂😂😂 too bad for you, most people still want windows, I’m there to capitalize on it!!
Microsoft is doing more for Linux adoption than anyone else ever has lol
Valve with Steamdeck and Proton development: “Am I a joke to you?”
They are helping, yes, but windows 11 is a driving force like I’ve never seen.
Honestly, big shoutout to Microsoft for the strong push to get me in Linux’s loving embrace.
Double shoutout to them for making it very easy to not even considering to come back.
I’ve got two friends that are right in the edge of trying. One has a spare thin client that he wants to PoC with and was asking for distros and how to install. The other was thinking of jumping in the deep end with Arch, and I’ve warned him, but the wiki is solid, he’s not dumb, and Arch install is better than it ever has been.
That and backwards compatibility for Win7 & Win10. Shares of those OSs have gone up and several application developers have announced continued support or are advocating for unlocking/keeping secure those OSs.
Source?
And Mac.
Yes definitely, but mentioning anything good about Apple on Lemmy gets you stitches…
I mean there’s good reason for that but MacOS is kinda in between Windows and Linux, in terms of usability and shitfuckery.
Switched to a Mac 11 years ago and never looked back. Their OS is stellar.
stellarly bad
There isnt anything good.
I would rather manage Apple ecosystem devices for family than Windows any day of the week.
I did and believe me, you do not.
I do, and trust me, I do.
Your comment is only proving my point.
Someonw had to do it :)
I have said the same as well. Prior to them dropping the fat grumpy that is 11, I was all in on the windows ecosystem for myself. I heavily modified it of course so it didn’t have a bunch of the nonsense but overall, the experience was good. But then they started warping 10, and then they came out with 11 which was massive garbage at release and now is worse garbage years down the road. And with that AI outlook, I’m full on bailing from everything.
And for some reason when I buy a laptop I need to also pay for that disgusting spyware. How is this scam still going on?
MafiaSoft is definitely taking their piece of the action, but laptops from smaller companies like System76 end up costing a fair amount more extra for equivalent hardware than the $50-$100 tax you’re otherwise paying for an OS you’re going to promptly replace. I’d say vote with your wallet, but I realize not everyone can afford to do so.
Yeah, the lack of mass production causes higher prices. Framework and system76 are doing good things and deserve support. However, the issue imo is a legislative one. You shouldn’t be forced to purchase an operating system with your hardware.
the issue imo is a legislative one
Couldn’t agree more. Feels quite monopolistic that everyone buying mass-produced, commodity hardware is also forced to buy a Windows license.
Only when you buy a windows laptop. You can buy MacOS, Android, chromeOS, linux laptops.
ChromeOS and android are about to be the same thing. I know you can buy laptops with Linux for a while (e.g., RHEL on IBM/Lenovo machine); however, it is definitely not the norm. It’s getting much better now, but if you want your choice of hardware it’s probably going to ship with windows. MacOS is quickly becoming a walled Garden too. I just want to be refunded for an operating system that I immediately wipe, and everyone else should too.
Microsoft is so incredibly fucked when the AI bubble starts to burst. They’ve abandoned so many of their other projects and customers to go all-in on it.
I keep parroting this, but in the next couple of years, I think there will be a couple of giants that fall. I work in ServiceNow and they, like many others, have gone all in on AI. Their problem is that they were slower than some, their solution is half baked at best, and it’s prohibitively expensive. Nobody is paying 10s of thousands+ extra for the licensing to be able to run agents, and less are paying the extra licensing required for the users to be able to use that agent.
I’ve now been pulled into copilot studio, and yet again it’s another product rushed to market that isn’t ready for the big stage. Dog shit documentation and training material, and terrible environment design.
All of these big players have invested so much money in adding AI, nobody wants it, and now they’re all hemoragging money.
Their problem is that they were slower than some, their solution is half baked at best, and it’s prohibitively expensive
Sounds like a lot of company these days.
I dunno. I feel like they are like the cable company now. They will jus sit there twiddling their nipples while we are all fucked.
I need the cable company (or similar) due to the fact that infrastructure is hard to deploy, and we need Internet to participate in society.
Nobody needs Microsoft cause every single one of their products has an alternative that’s at least as good.
They survive by courting enterprises, but many of them can also switch away if they want.
On a personal basis that works, but they are so corporately entrenched that their products getting shitier matters quite little.
Seriously this, it would take something like the PCI or SOX declaring Windows outside of compliance for Microsoft to die from bad business decisions in the US. Although German gov switching to Linux starts treading a path through
Oh really, how bummed would they be?
They will be fine. They are second most valuable company in the world. They have money to throw around and their source of income still seem inexhaustible. A few new Linux users won’t even make a dent.
Sorry to be so blunt, but it’s the truth no matter what we are wishing for.
Hate to tell you, but we’re all incredibly fucked. Least of all Microsoft. They know what they’re doing. They most certainly already have a plan for recovery, as they know it’s coming just as well as everyone else.
It won’t make a difference.
What other projects they abandoned do you see as so critical that it would break Microsoft?
Copilot, Github, LinkedIn, ChatGPT are the ones that come to mind. All of them have started to degrade in quality in one way or another, and with the exception of LinkedIn, they all have competitors that could potentially, over the long haul, could dismantle Microsoft. They’re also running out of places to extend and extinguish.
It probably won’t happen in one or two lifetimes, but enough cracks in a dam accumulate and eventually the whole thing breaks.
The only reason I have a windows box is for gaming, specifically sims (racing and flying)
Ever more reason to test and see if the wheel and flight stick work under Proton.
Bazzite my dude. Check it out, super easy and setup for easy dual boot so you can give it a shot without clearing windows (if shits partitioned right)
I want to use this last year of win 10 updates to slowly get onto Bazzite but I have heard horror stories of dualbooting Linux and Windows. Windows tends to overwrite the boot preferences and caps the system.i have only booted into Linux from an external drive in the past, so what is the tried and true dual boot method?
You’re generally safe if you 1) install them on two different disks and 2) if you’re installing windows later, unplug any drives you don’t want to use with windows. Microsoft likes to poke all drives it can see during installation even if you don’t touch them.
So pretty safe if Windows is a priority install, and Linux is on a 2nd drive. Easy enough, thanks!
Definitely. If you have a second one it’s very safe to try out a full Linux install.
Disks or partitions?
Two separate disks. The issue is that windows likes to overwrite or otherwise mess with the boot loader if it’s not the default windows one.
I’d be amazed if you were the first person testing if those things work. However, I would not be surprised if your specific peripherals do not work as they are supposed to.
If you know someone with a Linux pc it could be easy to test it out.
I’ll probably throw in a spare HD and dual boot the box to test one of these days. Each successive MS attempt to force crap down our throats just further incentivizes me.
fuck off, not my shit you wont
More unwanted bloat to disable, I guess.
“With Gaming Copilot (Beta)” you can let the AI play the games for you. /s 🤡
you say that like people don’t watch playthroughs on youtube and twitch.
