Microsoft announced the Recall feature at the same time as Copilot+ computers AI-infused in late May.
Introduced as a flagship, it allows you to “remember” – in the form of a timeline of thumbnails and screenshots – what the user has seen and done on the computer (documents, images, videos and websites) to find the content more easily his.
On the occasion of its presentation Microsoft explain : “Copilot+ computers will organize information according to the experiences and associations specific to each of us, like a photographic memory. Recall reminds you of items you’ve forgotten’ and uses a ‘semantic index’ specific to each user. Functionality may be paused, configured, or disabled for specific applications or sites.
Potentially attractive, the recall functionality was welcome especially cold from the first IT security experts to look at it.
One of the main concerns was that in its current form Recall could be a great opportunity for information thieves these malware password thieves wreak havoc for many months.
Microsoft says it “listened to its customers.” In response to criticism, the publisher message three provisions. First, saving screenshots via Recall will be optional and disabled by default: the user will have to intentionally enable it.
This activation will require Windows Hello to be enabled. This is no accident: Hello will be used to ensure the user’s physical presence in front of the workstation to reference the activity timeline and launch a call data search.
Finally, all data related to this functionality will be encrypted: it will be decrypted on the fly when Recall is called, after user authentication.