Signal Now Blocks Windows Recall From Recording Your Conversations (Unless You Want It)
On Wednesday, Signal announced a new feature for the Windows version of its app. Why not include the new feature in the Mac version of the app? Because this update is specifically targeting a Windows 11 feature that Signal doesn’t think is safe: Feedback.
Why is Windows Recall unsafe?
If you’re unfamiliar, Windows Recall is an AI-powered feature that Microsoft has rolled out to Copilot+ PCs. Recall essentially takes screenshots of your display throughout the day, creating a compendium of your PC’s activity. This way, you can access Recall screenshots to search for specific actions, messages, apps, and more from your personal Windows history. In theory, this is convenient — instead of endlessly scrolling through files or chats, you can search Windows for what you need. In practice, however, the privacy and security implications are hard to ignore.
The feature was originally supposed to launch last year, but Microsoft kept delaying its launch due to security issues: In its first version, Microsoft decrypted the entire screenshot database when you unlocked your PC, meaning anyone with physical access to your computer or who knew your PC password could access your PC’s activity history. Microsoft closed that security hole, but there were still issues, like allowing all sensitive information (social security numbers, cleartext passwords, private chats, etc.) to be used in screenshots, and even saving text from screenshots as plain text — a hacker’s dream.
Microsoft has been busy developing the feature since then, and recently brought it back for good . Recall is now protected by Windows Hello authentication during setup and whenever the screenshot database is accessed; sensitive information should be censored by default; and the feature now lets you choose which apps to exclude from screenshots, in case you don’t want Windows to take screenshots of personal chats or important work, for example. However, there are still security risks (sensitive information isn’t always censored, for example), as there always are when you let a program (the OS, no less) take screenshots of your computer activity all day, every day.
This is simply too far for Signal, a company known to take security very seriously. In response, Signal for Windows now blocks Recall by default on Copilot+ PCs. This isn’t a simple setting that apps can enable for themselves (another problem Signal has with Microsoft’s feature). To achieve this, Signal has marked its app window as displaying DRM (Digital Rights Management) content. This tricks Windows into thinking that the Signal window is playing copyrighted content, and therefore won’t take screenshots of that window for Recall.
This is clever, but it has two consequences. For starters, it disables Recall for Signal for any users who actually want the feature to work. I personally wouldn’t use Recall, but I understand that someone who does might not like an app that becomes uncontrollable and disables a feature they want to use, especially since you have to opt in to using Recall in the first place. But even if you don’t use Recall, it also prevents you from taking screenshots yourself: If you’ve ever tried to take a screenshot of a DRM-covered window — say, while watching Netflix — you’ll know what I mean.
How to Disable Screenshot Blocking in Signal on Windows 11
Luckily, there is an easy way to get around the changes. Signal itself admits that this is by design, knowing that there will be users who, for one reason or another, will want to at least take a screenshot of their chats.
To disable Signal’s window DRM feature, go to Signal Settings > Privacy > Screen Security . When you disable Screen Security, you’ll see a pop-up warning you that Windows may be taking screenshots of your Signal window in a way that “may not be private.” Click Disable and you’re good to go.