Subj : Microsofts controversial Recall feature for Windows 11 could alre
To   : All
From : TechnologyDaily
Date : Thu May 23 2024 13:00:06

Microsofts controversial Recall feature for Windows 11 could already be in 
legal hot water

Date:
Thu, 23 May 2024 11:50:15 +0000

Description:
Investigation is underway by a privacy watchdog, and itll be very interesting 
to see the outcome.

FULL STORY
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 Microsofts announcements around Build 2024 have certainly grabbed some 
attention, but none more so on the controversy front than the AI-powered 
Recall feature in Windows 11 

Recall has been stirring up strong opinions left, right and center since its 
revelation, and now it appears to be under the microscope of the ICO, a 
UK-based privacy watchdog. 

The worries expressed widely online are focused on how this feature may 
affect privacy for those who have it, which wont be all Windows 11 users, we 
should note  just Copilot+ PC owners who have the necessary hardware goods in 
terms of a powerful NPU . 

For those who missed it, what Recall does is record your PC usage, very 
literally in terms of taking screenshots of your active windows every couple 
of seconds. This then allow you to exercise powerful natural language-based 
search capabilities to rifle through your past PC usage, not just in terms of 
text but also visual search  with AI locating what you need by going through 
that huge library of screen grabs. 

You can doubtless see the kind of privacy concerns that might be sparked by 
this constant stream of screenshots going on in the background, but the 
pushback and reaction has got serious very quickly. 

 Sky News spotted that in the UK, the Information Commissioners Office (ICO), 
which oversees data privacy and related regulations, is already cautious 
about the Recall capability. 

Indeed, following all the uproar around Recall, the ICO is investigating the 
feature, and told Sky: We are making enquiries with Microsoft to understand 
the safeguards in place to protect user privacy. (Image credit: iStock) 
Safety first 

Its a good question, of course  so what safeguards are in place here to 
protect Windows 11 users? 

For starters, Recall happens locally, so everything is stored on the PC, and 
nothing is sent online to the cloud or Microsofts servers  so theres no risk 
of having data intercepted (or a third-party data breach leaking the private 
details of how you use your Windows 11 machine). 

Microsoft has underlined that it doesnt have access to any of this data, and 
it wont be used to train its AI. 

Furthermore, the company pointed out that you can manually delete snapshots, 
or adjust the timeframe theyre kept for  or pause, or turn off Recall 
entirely if you dont want it. Its also possible to block certain apps or 
websites from being used by Recall, so effectively theres a lot of 
fine-grained control here. 

However, will Windows 11 users be bothered to exercise that control and 
properly set up Recall? Well, thats one worry, and another is that while its 
all well and good to say everything stays on the device, we have to firstly 
trust thats the case  and its all watertight  and secondly, what if your PC 
is compromised by malware, or stolen. Then what? 

Hackers or thieves could potentially have access to your Recall library of 
screenshots, which may contain confidential information, openly available to 
see, such as your bank or card details, or visible passwords, or, well, 
anything that has happened on your PC (that you havent marked out of bounds 
using Windows 11s settings for Recall). 

As Muhammad Yahya Patel, who is lead security engineer at Check Point, put 
it: It is a one-shot attack for criminals, like a grab and go, but with 
Recall they will essentially have everything in a single location [your 
screenshot database]  Imagine the goldmine of information that will be stored 
on a machine, and what threat actors can do with it. (Image credit: 
Shutterstock) More questions than answers? 

So, there are definitely still some major concerns and question marks here, 
and its going to be pretty interesting to see what the ICO makes of 
Microsofts big AI play for Windows 11 to supercharge search. 

 Weve already discussed other thorny areas around Recall  such as Windows 11 
Home users apparently not benefiting from encryption for the data used by the 
feature, and what type of encryption is in place for Windows 11 Pro (or 
business) users anyway? 

In that article, we also go over the precautions you can take to make Recall 
as secure as possible, but really, the best bet for the paranoid might be  
simply turn it off and dont use it. And maybe Microsoft wonders what all the 
fuss is about from naysayers, and why they dont just take that approach. 

But for the less tech-savvy, who might not even realize what Recall is, or 
that its turned on by default, it could be a risky feature  particularly 
considering these are the people who are most prone to getting hit by malware 
or hacked. 

With that in mind, shouldnt the first sensible security step be to have 
Recall off by default? So that its only turned on by those who know what its 
for, and want it? Lets see what the ICO makes of Microsofts default on 
approach, too. You might also like... AI surveillance is on the horizon, but 
Mullvad VPN might have a fix Watch out: soon some older PCs will lose Windows 
11 support Dont make these 5 big mistakes when using Windows 11



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Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/computing/windows/microsofts-controversial-recall-fe
ature-for-windows-11-could-already-be-in-legal-hot-water


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