Microsoft Tries To Address Privacy Backlash Over New Windows 11 ‘Recall’ Feature

Back in May, Microsoft announced that it was bringing a new feature to Windows 11 dubbed “Recall.” According to Microsoft’s explanation of Recall, the “AI” powered technology was supposed to take screenshots of your activity every five seconds, giving you an “explorable timeline of your PC’s past,” that Microsoft’s AI-powered assistant, Copilot, can then help you peruse.

The idea is that you can use AI to help you dig through your computer use to remember past events (helping you find that restaurant your friend texted you about, or remember that story about cybernetic hamsters that so captivated you two weeks ago).

But it didn’t take long before privacy advocates understandably began expressing concerns that this not only provides Microsoft with an even more detailed way to monetized consumer privacy, it creates significant new privacy risks should that data be exposed:

“It makes your security very fragile,” as Dave Aitel, a former NSA hacker and founder of security firm Immunity, described it—more charitably than some others—to WIRED earlier this week. “Anyone who penetrates your computer for even a second can get your whole history. Which is not something people want.”

A lot of the detailed analysis on this illustrated that privacy most assuredly wasn’t anywhere near the forefront of Microsoft’s thinking as this was being developed.

Microsoft initially tried to calm user concerns by insisting all the processing happens on your local device and isn’t shared with Microsoft. Given the last decade or two of corporate privacy promises, that didn’t go over well. So Microsoft is now taking additional steps to try and address concerns, including making the new service opt-in only, and tethering access to encrypted Recall information to the PIN or biometric login restrictions of Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-in Security.

That this kind of stuff didn’t occur earlier to a company with the kind of money, staff, and resources of Microsoft perhaps says more than the company’s belated fixes do. Microsoft certainly isn’t the worst example in the AI space, but the obsession with making a quick buck from “AI” hype certainly has more than a few companies and employees forgoing basic fucking reason and due diligence.

Microsoft of course has a larger problem in that a lot of people really don’t like Windows 11 that much; or at least don’t see a reason why they should migrate from Windows 10. Microsoft is hoping to end “free” support for Windows 10 next year, but it remains the most popular Microsoft operating system by a pretty wide margin, something probably not helped by new feature privacy kerfuffles like this.

Microsoft’s Copilot+ PCs with Recall are slated to launch June 18.