Microsoft’s New “Recall” Feature Is Equal Parts Cool and Dangerous

Posted on by

We take search functions for granted if everything goes well. If you’re searching for a specific email, photo, or document on your computer and it pops up, you don’t think twice about it. But if you spend 10 minutes looking through your hard drive looking for that file, you’ll lose your mind. This is where Microsoft hopes its new revocation feature can help , even if it comes with some serious security risks.

What is a review?

To recap, it’s simple at its core: This feature quietly takes screenshots of what you’re doing on your computer throughout your session. Whenever you search with Recall, it retrieves all those screenshots to find relevant moments in your PC’s activity history that might be what you’re looking for, merging them into a scrollable timeline. For example, if you’re looking for a slideshow you created for work, searching for it may bring up information about the time you worked on it in PowerPoint, as well as the presentation you presented with it. The same goes for the image: if you’re looking for a photo of your dog at the park, you can see it from the moment you open it in your photo library, as well as in the messaging app you used to send the photos. friends and family.

Recall also associates these screenshots with the active app: By scrolling through the timeline, not only can you see which window you were looking at it from, Recall will tell you which app was running and when. So if you know you want to host a PowerPoint session in February, you can skip any screenshots from Teams.

While this is certainly a new feature, Microsoft wasn’t the first to launch a feature like this. Rewind offers a similar experience on macOS, recording everything you do (including audio transcription) to make everything you do on your Mac searchable. Of course, the big difference here is that Recall is a feature created by Microsoft, while Rewind is only offered by a third-party developer for macOS.

You also won’t be able to use Recall on any PC, even if it’s running Windows 11. Instead, it’s PC-exclusive to Copilot+ , Microsoft’s new standard for AI-powered PCs. These machines are powered by Snapdragon X Plus and Snapdragon X Elite chips, which have a dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU) to handle local AI processes. If you don’t have one of these new computers, like the new Surface Pro or Surface Laptop, you won’t be able to try Recall when it launches.

Is it safe to use Recall?

The answer, from Microsoft’s point of view, is yes. Because Recall only runs on Copilot+ PCs, it is processed entirely on the device, without offloading processing to the cloud. This means that everything from the AI ​​processing to the screenshots themselves happen on your computer. Microsoft says screenshots used for Recall are also encrypted on your computer, even from other profiles on the computer: if you lock your computer, your Recall screenshots will also be locked.

Plus, you can control which apps and websites Recall takes screenshots for. If you don’t want Recall to take screenshots when you use WhatsApp, you can prevent it from doing so. You can also pause a call for a certain period of time and delete either recently taken screenshots or all screenshots stored on your device. InPrivate browsing sessions in Microsoft Edge, as well as DRM content such as Netflix shows and movies, will also not be recorded. (I guess your secrets are really safe when browsing InPrivate.)

However, while Microsoft places a lot of emphasis on Recall’s security, it is not necessarily foolproof. First, Recall takes screenshots of almost everything you do on your computer (assuming you haven’t configured those settings yourself). This means it won’t stop taking screenshots when you enter or access sensitive information like passwords, your Social Security number, or banking information: if you see it on the screen, Recall is likely recording it. It’s good that these screenshots are encrypted when you lock your device, but if someone manages to get into your computer, they will be able to access your entire call history, including this sensitive information. It seems like an unforced mistake to allow a would-be hacker to open Recall, search for “Bank of America” or “Turbo Tax,” and watch as your past self enters all the required credentials and personal information for them.

For the average Windows 11 user, Recall probably won’t cause problems, or at least won’t expose them to significantly more risk than they’re already exposing themselves to. Do you have a photo of your Social Security card in your photo library? ? Do you store all your passwords in a Word document? (Please don’t do this.) But it’s important to understand exactly what you’re agreeing to before enabling this feature. Whether it’s a hacker looking to break into your financial accounts or a nosy friend snooping around your computer, you make it easier for anyone who knows your computer password to find all of your computer activity.

If you’d like to try Recall and any of Copilot+’s other PC-exclusive features, you can pre-order one of the new Microsoft Surface devices below:

More…

0
Computing

Leave a Reply