Apple does not take screenshots every couple seconds, unlike Microsoft. That's what people were bothered about.

That was merely one aspect of what people were bothered about. The most obvious one.

Two companies who have earned very different reputations over the decades, will elicit rather different reactions when announcing similar features, yes.

I also missed the part of the linked article where it says that my Mac is going to take a screenshot every few seconds and store it for three months.

Yup, this is the fascinating thing to me. Looking forward to some detailed comparisons between the two architectures.

The massive difference here is that Apple Recall is 100% on device. (for the use cases they demoed anyways)

EDIT: Yes, I'm wrong.

Isn't Microsoft Recall also 100% on device?

Microsoft Recall is completely on-device (or so they say).

It's mostly the screenshots things that get people. Semantic search is ok if the index is properly secured and privacy is a concern. And localized context is ok too (summarizing one web page does not screenshot my whole screen). I believe Microsoft has gone with building the easiest option (recording everything) instead of thinking about better contextual integration.

Those are pretty big If's when you have a webkit or blink-based browser on the same device.