Here’s how the tool will ultimately work

Let us remind you that it promises to be one of the most interesting new Microsoft products in recent years, but its preliminary (not final) availability is scheduled for June 18 With the release of the first Copilot+ devices, it was overshadowed by criticism. Some experts even called it a cybersecurity “disaster.” In the midst of this controversy, the Redmond company decided to take action.

Pavan Davuluri, head of Windows and devices at Microsoft, announced a new security approach for Recall based on the feedback received. When it is available in Windows 11, this feature that records everything we do through screenshots will be disabled by default, but we can activate it during the initial PC setup or later from the section Privacy and Security systems.

Additional safety precautions when using Recall

Microsoft is also committed to improving Recall’s security. In the original mechanics, an active Windows session was enough to use the tool. With the update we will need to go through Windows Hello to activate the recovery timeline. As a reminder, the latter is an authentication system that works with facial recognition, fingerprint or PIN, so it provides an important security barrier.

The firm led by Satya Nadella has not forgotten to take on yet another controversy. As we say, Recall saves a snapshot of what we do on our computer, which may include personal or sensitive information. However, this tool did not seem prepared to protect our data. An example of this is TotalRecall, a utility that promises to retrieve all this information as it resides in an accessible SQLite database.

Microsoft wants to protect Recall with two layers of protection. On the one side, Just-in-time encryption which will cause recovery snapshots to be decrypted only after the user is authenticated via Windows Hello. On the other hand, they will also encrypt the tool’s search index, presumably to prevent it from being accessed by any malicious apps that might take advantage of it to harvest data.

One of the privacy benefits that the Redmond company touted when it announced Recall is that all content is stored locally. The fact that this type of data is not stored in the cloud is good news, although our computers can also be vulnerable, so local security is also important. We are now seeing improvements in this sense. The instrument evolved before its appearance.

It should be noted that to use Recall we will need a Copilot+ computer, that is who has an NPU at least 45 TOPS. Unfortunately, any chips prior to the recently introduced Snapdragon X Elite, AMD Ryzen AI 300, and Intel “Lunar Lake” do not meet this requirement. It is also necessary to take into account that on June 18th Recall will appear as a preview version of the application, intended to become the final version.

Images | Microsoft

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