Microsoft’s Recall Feature: A Privacy-Focused Experience for Copilot+ PCs

Microsoft is revamping its Recall feature, which takes continuous screenshots to help users search for and find items they’ve previously seen and saved on their PCs. This feature is a key experience for Copilot+ PCs, and Microsoft is making promises to reassure users concerned about their privacy.

A Privacy-Focused Experience

The feature will be entirely optional to use, and users will be asked during setup whether they want to opt into the “photographic memory” feature. They can choose to “Yes, save” or “No, don’t save.” If they don’t proactively turn it on, it will be off, and they can remove it completely via the settings.

How Recall Works

If users do want to use the feature, they can pause it at any time. They’ll also be able to delete data featuring certain apps and websites, and it won’t capture data when using web browsers’ incognito modes.

Here are the options detailed by Microsoft:

• In-private browsing in supported browsers is never saved.
• Users can filter out specific apps or websites viewed in supported browsers.
• Users can control how long Recall content is retained and how much disk space is allocated to snapshots.
• Sensitive content filtering is on by default and helps reduce passwords, national ID numbers, and credit card numbers from being stored in Recall.
• Find something you didn’t mean to save? You can delete a time range, all content from an app or website, or anything and everything found in Recall search.
• An icon in the system tray will help you know when snapshots are being saved and makes it easy to quickly pause saving snapshots.

Does Recall Make You Feel More Comfortable?

Does the above make you feel more comfortable about potentially using Recall for a Copilot+ PC? Let us know @trustedreviews on X.