Microsoft released a new build to the Canary insider channel that gives testers on Copilot+ PCs the option to test the AI feature Recall again.
You may remember that Microsoft announced it with some fanfare earlier this year only to be overwhelmed by the negative response that it received. It got pulled quickly by Microsoft and the company promised to go back to the drawing board to address major areas of concern.
Most of these centered on privacy and security issues.
Good to know: Recall is designed as a history feature. It captures screenshots of the screen in intervals and parses them using AI. Users may then use natural language to search the activity history and find certain content that they might not find otherwise.
Recall is available again, at least for testers on the Insider channel who use devices that meet the Copilot+ PC requirements.
Microsoft has a big post on the Windows Insider Blog that lists the changes that it made to improve privacy and security. One of the most important changes is that Recall is no longer opt-out. Means, you do not have to worry about the feature unless you enable it.
A list of known issues is attached to the page. There, you find the following issue:
Websites added as filters may be saved if the content is in split screen or side bar pane in Edge. This will be addressed in an update.
In other words: even if you have set up certain websites to be excluded from Recall, the AI may still record them if they are displayed in split screen or side bar pane view in Microsoft Edge.
This is a problem, considering that sensitive information may become available. You may recall that Recall is not compatible with all browsers that you may run.
If you run an unsupported browser, all filters will be ignored as well. The end result is that activity that you do not want recorded will be recorded, if you enable Recall.
Closing Words
Recall may be a useful feature in certain environments. Think business or Enterprise PCs that are used for very specific tasks only. Provided that security and privacy is airtight, Recall might be useful in some scenarios.
For home users or PCs with mixed activity, it might not be that useful. If you search for past content a lot and do not find it using Windows Search or other search tools, then it might be useful.
If you do not, there is little use in Recall, especially if you consider the scope of it and the access that it has to information.
What is your take on Recall? Would you use it under some circumstances? Or do you miss the use case that would it make useful for you? Feel free to leave a comment down below.
We all know that Recall is way more important to Microsoft than to its users. Microsoft wants personalized, targeted data that can be used for in Windows/Office advertisements. By calling it a feature, Microsoft avoids being sued for data collection.
Why not make it a separate installation via the MS App Store, and not built into the OS?
This way those that want it can get and use it, and those that do not can not worry about the security issues. Also make CoPilot and all AI the same installation via the MS App Store. So those thatpt want it can those that dont are happy.
OH wait I forgot this Recall, Copilot, and AI implementations are all about how much data MS can harvest.
Microsoft does not now and never have harvested or in any way collect any data from windows or any other Microsoft product.
That’s why I block 200 Microsoft tracking website addresses in my host file.