Microsoft has promised to make several changes to its upcoming Recall feature after a firestorm of controversy. It was just like that several weeks after the Redmond company announced the Recall as one of a number of exclusive artificial intelligence (AI) features coming to new Copilot+ computers such as Surface 7 laptop and Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge.
But at the time it has a UK data protection watchdog confirmed that it is “inquiring” with Microsoftand billionaire SpaceX CEO Elon Musk warned millions of followers on X to leave the feature— all despite the fact that Recall isn’t available on any Windows 11 PC yet.
Recall is the main feature of this Copilot+ PC table, which allows you to go through everything that happened on your Windows 11 PC and jump back in time with a single click. Everything is searchable because the AI went through the images and text on the device
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Even worse, former Microsoft engineer Kevin Beaumont called Recall a “disaster” and warned that “it’s now possible to steal everything you’ve ever typed or viewed on your own Windows computer with two lines of code.” It was published by security experts long blog post criticized the feature last week.
And Microsoft seems to be listening to the discourse about its exceptional new AI trick.
“Even before we made Recall available to customers, we heard a clear signal that we could make it easier for people to choose to activate Recall on their Copilot+ PC and improve privacy and security,” admitted Pavan Davuluri, Corporate Vice President of Windows and Devices, in new blog post.
“Our team is driven by an unrelenting desire to empower people through the transformative potential of AI, and we see great utility in Recall and the problem it can solve. We also know that people can get the full value of experiences like Recall that they have to trust, so we’re launching Recall in Preview on Copilot+ machines—to give customers the option to engage with the feature early, or not, and to have the opportunity to learn from the types of real-world scenarios customers and the Windows community find most useful.”
Microsoft executives are outlining a number of improvements that will be made to the Recall ahead of its June 18 launch, when the first Copilot+ PCs will be available for purchase. Recall and several other AI features coming to Windows 11 will not be included in the free software update for all users. Instead, users will need to upgrade to a Copilot+ certified laptop.
To mitigate recall concerns, Microsoft:
- Disable recall by default – you will now need to manually enable this feature during the Copilot+ PC setup process. This will “give people a clearer option to opt in to save images with Recall,” explains Pavan Davuluri
- Before making any changes to Recall, you’ll need to sign in to Windows Hello using your computer’s fingerprint reader, PIN, or facial recognition. Not only that, but “proof of presence is also required to view your timeline and search in Recall,” says Microsoft.
- Responding to concerns raised in Kevin Beaumont’s explosive blog post, “just-in-time” decryption unlocks your screenshot database when your identity is verified with Windows Hello, “so Recall screenshots will only be decrypted and accessible when the user authenticates.”
- The entire search index database will now be encrypted to keep users’ data safe
In response to the recall controversy, Microsoft will now disable the feature and its “snapshots” by default for all Copilot+ computers. During the setup process, this feature will be thoroughly explained to users via the above pop-up window, offering them the option to activate the Recall feature
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Recall works by taking screenshots—or “snapshots,” as Microsoft calls them—of what’s happening on your screen. Microsoft uses on-device artificial intelligence to transcribe text from web pages, Word documents, PDF files, handwritten notes, and anything else displayed on your computer screen. all is instantly searchable.
For example, if you know you’ve been looking at flights to Spain in the last month – you can search for the destination and find the exact website. With a single click, Windows 11 will bring up a document, image, video or web page to pick up where you left off. You can also scroll back in time through screenshots that are taken hundreds of times every hour and can be stored for months.
Yusuf Mehdi, Chief Marketing Officer, Microsoft, described Recallas “photo memory” for your laptop. Mehdi wrote: “We set out to solve one of the most frustrating problems we face every day – finding something we know we’ve seen before on our computer.
“Today, we have to remember what file folder it was stored in, what website it was on, or wade through hundreds of emails to find it. Now with Recall, you can virtually access what you’ve seen or done on your computer in a way , which is like having a photographic memory.”
In the latest corporate blog post,Pavan Yesvuluri adds, “You’re always in control of what gets saved as a snapshot. You can disable snapshots from being saved, temporarily pause snapshots, filter apps and websites from being in snapshots, and delete your snapshots at any time.”
By default, Recall stops taking snapshots when you’re using an incognito mode in your web browser, such as Google Chrome’s incognito mode.
Recall and a host of other AI features will be exclusive to Windows 11 running on so-called Copilot+ PCs, including the newly announced Surface Laptop 7th Edition, pictured above. MICROSOFT PRESS OFFICE
To reassure Windows 11 users, Pavan Davuluri has pledged to continue listening to user feedback.
“We will continue to listen to and learn from our customers, including consumers, developers and enterprises, to evolve our experience in ways that make sense for them. We are excited about the upcoming launch of Copilot+ PCs on June 18 and the innovative new features and benefits, that this completely new category of computers will bring.
“We will continue to build these new capabilities and experiences for our customers by prioritizing privacy, safety and security. We are grateful for the vibrant community of customers who continue to share their feedback with us,” the blog post concludes.
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With the launch of Copilot+ PCs this month, two distinct types of Windows 11 devices will be available – devices with cutting-edge AI features and devices with the standard feature set available on desktops, tablets and laptops that don’t meet Copilot+. PC certification. The latter is the version of Windows 11 that will be available to Windows 10 users who take advantage of the free upgrade.
Windows 10 will lose support next year, will exclude millions of users from critical bug fixes and new features — unless they pay an annual fee to Microsoft.