If you’ve already pre-ordered Microsoft’s newly-announced Copilot+ AI PCs, the first of which are set to launch next week, just to get your hands on the company’s Recall feature then we’ve got some bad news. Microsoft is reconsidering the feature’s public rollout, citing a desire to provide a “trusted, secure and robust experience for all customers.” Who could’ve guessed customers weren’t too fond of the numerous security risks?
Those Copilot+ PCs are still launching next week, 18 June, only with one of its key features missing. “We are adjusting the release model for Recall to leverage the expertise of the Windows Insider community to ensure the experience meets our high standards for quality and security,” said Microsoft in a now-updated blog post explaining the change.
Beaten at its own Recall game
Microsoft Recall is the company’s official version of Rewind or Windrecorder and implements AI to periodically screenshot whatever its user is doing on their PC, which can later be ‘recalled’ via a timeline of events. The whole idea was that AI would operate on-device, to avoid being accessed by bad actors and not train Microsoft’s AI models. Which it does, though as it turns out, it’s rather simple to bypass.
Just last week, Microsoft attempted to quell those shouting “security risk” by making the feature an opt-in one, including “additional layers of data protection [so] Recall snapshots will only be decrypted and accessible when the user authenticates,” and forcing authentication through Windows Hello. That last bit is supposed to ensure that Recall is only running when its owner is present.
It wasn’t enough to stop Microsoft from backtracking the feature’s launch. It isn’t entirely ridding the platform of Recall, as it still plans to release it publically after the Windows Insider community has had a turn and helped shine a light on some of the more glaring security issues. Microsoft doesn’t offer an idea of when that’ll be, though it mentions it’ll publish a new blog post detailing how to get into the Recall preview when it becomes available.