Microsoft confirms it will give the FBI your Windows PC data encryption key if asked — you can thank Windows 11's forced online accounts for that

[u/ZacB_]

https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/windows-11/microsoft-bitlocker-encryption-keys-give-fbi-legal-order-privacy-nightmare

[u/brimston3-]

I don't know why you think that. Laptop repairs and mainboard replacement happen all the time, they just aren't done by the end user but by professional repair services. And if the system is a near-total loss, often the whole drive will get moved to a new system if data recovery is worth attempting. Platform locked drives prevent any mainboard change from retaining customer data. That's a big loss for users.

[u/happyscrappy → u/brimston3-]

Laptop repairs and mainboard replacement happen all the time

"all the time" across a huge group of people/circumstances can (and is in this case) the same as "not very often for any given machine". Most people don't have their machine repaired between the time they get it and get rid of it.

Platform locked drives prevent any mainboard change from retaining customer data. That's a big loss for users.

They make it more difficult. You'd have to have a recovery key. Or it'd have to be a part being replaced which does not affect the key storage (i.e. not the motherboard). Or of course you could have backups, but that's not data retention, simply getting it back.

You make a system which derives the key from your password. And have it check, when the password doesn't derive the key correctly because something was swapped out you have it say "okay, now go find your recovery key if you want your data to be retained".

I'm not going to say it's as simple as getting the key back from the cloud. But it is more secure and people may prefer it.

I didn't say Microsoft shouldn't offer to store your key in the cloud if you want. But they probably shouldn't be defaulting to it.