{"id":3254,"date":"2025-08-23T06:41:01","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T13:41:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/blog\/?p=3254"},"modified":"2025-08-23T06:41:02","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T13:41:02","slug":"the-ongoing-controversy-surrounding-microsofts-recall-feature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/blog\/the-ongoing-controversy-surrounding-microsofts-recall-feature\/","title":{"rendered":"The ongoing controversy surrounding Microsoft\u2019s Recall feature"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Have you ever thought, \u201cI wish my computer took periodic screenshots of everything I do on my computer\u201d? Well, Microsoft seems to think it\u2019s exactly what people want, considering the rollout of its Recall feature this past May. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Available on Copilot+ PCs (PCs that have been specifically designed with a dedicated Neural Processing Unit [NPU] for AI tasks), Recall was created to help users find anything they\u2019ve ever seen on their PC. It improves upon most computers\u2019 search functions, letting you scroll through a timeline of your past activity, from app usage to website visits. Because it takes screenshots of everything you do, you\u2019ll always be able to find what you need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This feature is handy for those of us with terrible memories, but not everyone is happy with it. So far, it\u2019s been blocked by<\/a> Signal, the Brave browser, and AdGuard. In a blog post speaking about the decision to add a \u201cDisable Windows Recall\u201d feature, AdGuard<\/a> said: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt any given moment, the system could snap a screenshot of a private chat window, an online form where you\u2019re entering your credit card, or simply something personal you didn\u2019t want saved.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Recal does have privacy features such as a filter for sensitive data like ID numbers, local, encrypted storage, and requires Windows Hello authentication and then a PIN on every login, the Ad Blocking company believes this isn\u2019t enough. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recent article from The Register<\/a> testing the sensitive data filter suggests this may be true. This test found that although the filter worked reasonably well, it didn\u2019t always pick up all information that might be considered sensitive and failed to filter it out. This was especially the case on certain shopping checkout pages. It also doesn\u2019t consider the myriad ways someone might choose to store personal data. As a result, if cybercriminals managed to break into a system using Recall, they could be privy to a wealth of sensitive information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although you do have the option to blacklist certain sites and apps, that requires quite a bit of diligence and anticipation of any sensitive information that might end up being exposed. At this stage, many are questioning whether the benefits of the feature outweigh the risks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sean Wright, Director of Application Security at Featurespace, told The Register:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I don’t dispute that Microsoft has the best intentions at heart, along with doing as much as they can to ensure the security of this feature. However, there are so many caveats, that I personally don’t see how one would be able to have all these areas covered from a privacy and security concern.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you ever thought, \u201cI wish my computer took periodic screenshots of everything I do on my computer\u201d? Well, Microsoft seems to think it\u2019s exactly what people want, considering the rollout of its Recall feature this past May. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3254"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3255,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3254\/revisions\/3255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}