When Microsoft announced the AI feature Recall in May, it felt confidence in its AI strategy. Recall, a feature that takes snapshots of the PC screen every five seconds, was designed to be the selling point for a new breed of PCs, that Microsoft calls Copilot+ PCs.
A lot depended on Recall. It was the first major AI feature that Microsoft designed exclusively for this new PC type.
The reveal and the days that followed turned out different. Recall was criticized left and right.
Core points were:
- Windows 11 activated Recall for users automatically and there was no opt-out option.
- The Recall database was not properly secured.
This would have made Recall one of the most lucrative target in computing history.
Tip: you can disable Recall in Windows 11 in several ways.
Microsoft announces changes to Recall
Today, Microsoft announced a series of changes to Recall that “improve privacy and security safeguards”.
- The setup experience is changed. Users need to make a decision now to activate Recall or keep it disabled.
- Windows Hello enrollment is required to enable Recall.
- Proof of presence is required before users may interact with Recall’s database.
- Additional security layers, including “just in time” decryption, is also enabled.
Closing words
Microsoft plans to ship the updated version of Recall on June 18th to Windows 11 Insider devices. By then, tinkerers will have another go at the feature to see if it is still possible to gain access to the database.
For a company that announced its new “security first” motto shortly before the reveal of Recall, feedback has been disastrous.
To end on a personal note. I still cannot find a use case for Recall. I do not see how it could help me improve my productivity on Windows PCs. Then again, I’m probably not the target audience for the feature.
What about you? Would you use the safer version of Recall?
Still, with this atrocity enabled, if you take a toilet break your significant other can check everything. If you lock your computer for your toiletbreaks your significant other won’t be your significant other for very long. Somehow it seems that Microsoft seems to think most of the world’s population has absolutely nothing to hide from anyone at any point in time. Might as well remove the “clean history” function from Edge while you’re at it, why don’t you? Just the fact that there’s a function like this present on your computer, enabled or not, is absurd. Rest assured this will be cracked so that any intruder can enable it remotely. Personally I am looking forward to some mastermind whizkid coming up with a solution on how to remove this from a windows .iso so it will never ever get installed in the first place. KDE Plasma 6.1 is looking better and better every day…
I’m far from Windows 11, further even from Copilot+ and its ‘Recall’ feature.
I’ve been computing ever since Windows 3.x, on the networks since year 2000, managed everything flawlessly, be mentioned with organization and not with a chaotic closet approach. I think that people who are aware that data requires organization proportionally to its volume are maybe a minority, and for them a feature such as ‘Recall’ seems obviously totally superfluous, all considerations of privacy intrusion aside, at least is this my conviction.
Should my computer allow ‘Recall’ that I certainly would not enable it (now that it’s planned to be disabled by default).
We all know how business and marketing goes : creating the feeling of opportunity then of necessity. The fundamentals I consider as necessary are privacy and security, both related to a certain extent. Be reminded that human beings have the faculty of memorization, of organization, and not only that of being brainwashed to consume blindly and buy/use what they do not need. IMO no one needs ‘Recall’, no one except maybe the absent-minded.
Well said, Tom!
Personally, I will avoid W11 as long as possible. Furthermore, I will never use features like “Recall” and others. Additionally, I don’t see any benefit in those features.
Microsoft has worked hard over the years to earn my mistrust.
Quote: The setup experience is changed. Users need to make a decision now to activate Recall or keep it disabled.
My question is this: If the user disables Recall, will Microsoft leave them alone about it or will there be nag screens similar to, “Enable Recall To Get The Full Windows 11 Co-Pilot User Experience” start showing up?
I think they are anthropomorphizing a little too much.