what you should Know
- Microsoft plans to roll out a new AI feature called “Windows Recall” to new Windows 11 Copilot+ PCs this month.
- The feature remembers everything you’ve done on your computer and lets you find things using semantic search.
- Recall stores everything locally on the device, but it appears that the data is not encrypted when the user is logged into the computer.
Microsoft has faced quite a bit of backlash over its new Windows Recall AI feature since it was first unveiled on May 20. The AI tool, which ships on new Windows 11 Copilot+ PCs later this month, is designed to capture everything you do on your PC and use AI to index that content into semantically searchable snapshots.
When the feature was introduced, Microsoft promised security. The data that Recall collects is stored on the device, “encrypted” using Bitlocker, and is never sent to Microsoft or advertisers. Users are free to turn off Recall or, if they choose to use it, delete all snapshots at any time.
However, it turns out that not everything is as it seems. While it’s true that Windows Recall doesn’t send any data to the cloud, the data it stores locally on your machine isn’t very well protected. Security researcher Kevin Beaumount documented his findings on Windows Recall and revealed that the tool stores its data in a plain-text SQLite database.
This means that the data is readable and not encrypted when the user is logged into their computer. The only time data becomes encrypted is when the computer is not logged in. So while this prevents someone from accessing your data on a stolen laptop, it doesn’t prevent potential malware designed to delete Recall data while the user is logged in.
Microsoft has done the bare minimum to protect this data. It is stored in a system directory that requires administrator and system level rights to access and edit. However, these protections are easily circumvented, and an attacker can easily write a bit of software to ignore these permissions if they want to.
Windows Central reached out to Microsoft for comment on these findings surrounding the Windows Recall, but the company was unable to respond in time for publication.
Outside of these security issues, Windows Recall appears to work exactly as promised. I’ve been using the feature for the past few days and it’s really impressive how well it works. It can find images and text with obscure search phrases, and I was amazed at how capable it was at this.
Unfortunately, for users to really trust this tool, Microsoft will have to do the work to protect the data it collects locally on your computer. While it’s quite unlikely that you’ll ever encounter malware designed to erase Windows Recall data, it’s not impossible, and so it’s better to have that data encrypted for peace of mind.
That being said, I think the outrage over this discovery is somewhat overblown. All your files are unencrypted when you use your computer, but most people aren’t constantly concerned about malware potentially deleting their personal documents, photos, downloads, videos, and synced cloud folders.
While it doesn’t seem great that Microsoft built a tool into Windows that puts everything you do into a handy directory for attackers to take advantage of, it’s important to remember that Windows Recall is completely optional. You don’t have to use it if you don’t want to, and if you choose not to, the service won’t work. If you’re worried that it might be secretly activated in the background, Microsoft has built-in security measures to prevent this. If Recall is capturing data, a permanent visual indicator will be placed on the taskbar to let you know.
Also, the feature is only available on new Copilot+ computers. It won’t appear on existing Windows 11 installations, which may be reason enough for many not to upgrade their devices anytime soon.
Hopefully Microsoft can update Windows Recall to encrypt the data it collects in the future.
