Windows AI feature so unpopular they removed it is coming back

Despite privacy and security concerns, Microsoft plans to roll out a revised version of its AI-powered Recall feature soon.

Windows Insider PCs will begin to receive an updated and revised version of Recall starting in October.

Microsoft originally planned to include Recall as part of its Copilot+ PC program, which would be included on Microsoft Surface devices powered by new Qualcomm Snapdragon chips.

However, the feature was pulled after significant pushback from users and security experts.

The original concerns centered around Recall involved its continuous data scraping. Specifically, Recall would run continuously in the background, taking regular screenshots of user activities.

Microsoft

Any text would be scanned using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and stored in a searchable database.

The existence of this database prompted concerns that other users or those with remote access would be able to access, view, and export personal data stored in this database.

The purpose of the database was to help users locate information they may have lost track of. Since this information could include passwords, credit card or bank information it is of great interest to hackers, identity thieves, and other malicious actors. Microsoft did not include any measures to encrypt or secure the data scraped by Recall.

Microsoft has confirmed on the official Windows blog that the revised version of Recall will be encrypted. Access to the searchable database will require authentication, along with periodic authentication.

In addition, Recall will be off by default, so users who wish to use the feature will need to activate it manually from Settings.

The preview build, which includes the revised Recall, will be available to Windows Insiders using PCs that meet the Copilot+ system requirements. Specifically, this means an NPU (neural processing unit, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage.

Copilot+ builds that support x86 PCs equipped with AMD or Intel CPUs are planned to roll out before the end of the year.