Microsoft Recall

Recall is a feature of Windows 11 that takes a screenshot of a user's desktop every few seconds and then uses on-device large language models to allow a user to retrieve items and information that had previously been on their screen. It was announced by Microsoft, alongside the integration of GPT-4o into Copilot and an upgraded user interface in Windows 11.^[1] Recall's release immediately caused controversy, with experts warning that the feature could be a "disaster" for security and privacy,^[2] especially as users were initially forced to have Recall enabled.^[3] This backlash prompted Microsoft to postpone its rollout.^[2][4] Microsoft changed the feature to opt-in and provided instructions for how to remove it.^[5]

Backlash against Recall was centered on both security and privacy. Upon its release, Recall was described as a "potential security nightmare".^[6] The initial version of Recall saved all data to a plaintext database, making it very easy for the data to be stolen.^[7] Later versions of Recall have added encryption.^[3]

Although Microsoft claims that all information from Recall is stored locally and that they cannot access it, their track record in regards to user privacy has led many to conclude that, even if their claims are true of the present version, it may not be true of later versions and that data from Recall will inevitably be used in the future for advertising.^[8]

Hardware requirements

• Copilot+ PC that meets the Secured-core standard^[9]
• 40 TOPs NPU (neural processing unit)
• 16 GB RAM
• 8 logical processors
• 256 GB storage capacity, of which 50 GB of storage space must be free (Saving snapshots automatically pauses once the device has less than 25 GB of storage space)
• Users need to enable Device Encryption or BitLocker
• Users need to enroll into Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-in Security with at least one biometric sign-in option enabled in order to authenticate