"Recall" for Windows

Microsoft pulls the teeth out of Orwellian AI search

What Microsoft is touting as an innovation for the forgetful is making data protectionists' hair stand on end: an AI search that logs all activities.

(Bild: Microsoft)

Following criticism, Microsoft is introducing further restrictions for the Windows search function "Recall", which is supposed to save screen recordings every few seconds. "Recall" will now not record passwords and credit card numbers, the Windows company announced.

Information from websites with health and financial data will also be filtered out. This is Microsoft's response to one of the main criticisms of the function.

According to Microsoft, "Recall" should make it easier to find information on a PC. Software with artificial intelligence analyzes what can be seen on the many screenshots and creates a directory. This should help, for example, if you can no longer remember the name of a travel website you visited, but still remember that palm trees and a beach were there. You should then be able to find the page again by searching for "palm trees and beach".

However, some AI security researchers warned of a data protection disaster after the announcement of "Recall" in May. They came to the conclusion that cyber attackers could also access the lists under certain circumstances. Microsoft then announced better protection of the "Recall" data.

No longer activated by default
In addition, the feature will no longer be activated by default when setting up the PC; users will first have to activate it themselves. The introduction of the function planned for mid-June has been postponed for further improvements.

To give users more control over the information stored by "Recall", it will be possible to delete screenshots individually or in bundles, for example by specific websites or time periods.

Microsoft and manufacturers of Windows computers launched a new PC category on the market in mid-June, which is intended to be more tailored to use with artificial intelligence. The device class is called "Copilot+PC", in reference to Microsoft's AI assistant called "Copilot".