Key Takeaways
- Recall in Windows 11 is designed to take periodic screenshots for semantic search results, using AI capabilities locally on your device.
- Microsoft is reassuring users that they have full control over their Recall data, with options to configure settings like saving screenshots.
- Recall will have security measures in place, such as encryption, storage limits, and hardware-level protection, to ensure user privacy and trust.
Earlier this week, Microsoft announced its Copilot+ initiative at its Build 2024 conference. The AI-powered experience is designed for laptops that have neural processing units (NPUs) with processing prowess of 40 TOPS or more. While the initiative is arguably revolutionary in terms of the capabilities it promises, the event has managed to grab everyone’s attention for all the wrong reasons, thanks to an upcoming Windows 11 feature called Recall.
What is Recall in Windows 11, and how does it work?
For those unaware, Recall is a feature in the Copilot+ initiative which will enable your PC to take snapshots of your screen on a periodic basis. These screenshots can then be leveraged to surface relevant search results for you based on semantic modeling of the data. For example, if you search for “What brown handbags did I come across last week?”, Recall will be able to utilize all the screenshots it took of your web browsing experience, apps, images, and documents to surface relevant results. In essence, it’s a photographic memory store that Windows will use locally to answer natural language questions asked about your data.
Why is Recall controversial, and what is Microsoft doing to fix its image?
Naturally, many people on the internet became extremely worried when they realized that their system would be taking screenshots of all their activities and processing them for search results. However, just like we did earlier, Microsoft is trying to clear the air a bit by emphasizing to its customers that they will have full control over their Recall data on AI PCs.
For starters, Microsoft has noted that all Recall data captured on your system will be stored and processed locally, it will not be sent to the Redmond firm. Additionally, Recall will not record continuous video or audio.
Apart from the aforementioned assurances, Microsoft has also stated that users will have complete control over their Recall experience from the get-go. When you set up your AI PC, you’ll be asked if you want to configure certain capabilities such as saving screenshots, adding filters, and more. However, it is important to note that saving screenshots will be enabled by default.
If you keep it enabled, you’ll also see a snapshot icon in your Windows system tray, reminding you that your PC is regularly taking screenshots. Users will also have the option to disable or pause the snapshot-taking process at any time through Settings> Privacy & security> Recall & snapshots. Similarly, IT admins will have the ability to disable this feature through group policy, which will also delete any existing screenshots taken by Recall.
Interestingly, users will also be able to filter out apps and websites from Recall’s snapshots. That said, it is important to note that in order to filter out the latter, you need to be using Edge or any other Chromium-based browser. Additionally, Recall won’t take screenshots during private browsing or if you add the browser itself as an app filter.
Furthermore, there are some other security measures in place to protect your privacy too. Screenshots will be encrypted through Device Encryption or BitLocker and won’t be shared with other users logged in to the same device. You’ll be able to configure a maximum storage limit for screenshots and once that threshold is reached, Recall will automatically start deleting old snapshots as it starts taking new ones.
Other hardware-level protection in tow include Secured-core technology, Microsoft’s Pluton security processor, and Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-in Security (ESS) on select PCs. Microsoft says that its focus is to build and maintain customer trust in Windows, and you can find more details in the support document here.