Microsoft’s New Recall Feature Will Remember Everything You’ve Done By Taking Constant Screenshots

Microsoft

Who doesn’t want a folder full of completely useless screenshots they didn’t personally make for any intentional purpose?

Microsoft has done it again! They’ve come up with a bold, innovative feature that will cause anyone aware of it to immediately try to disable it. The AI feature, named Recall, will be exclusive to Windows CoPilot+ PCs.

Microsoft

So what is Recall, and how does it work? Well, it records everything you do on your PC so you can ask it questions like “what was that one site I went to last week that sold limited edition Funko POPs of non-descript men in suits?”, and it will search through its locally stored database of screenshots to provide you an answer. But don’t take my word for it; from their site:

Now, if you’re not a moron, you might think this sounds like a losing proposition for you, the end user. After all, this is a feature that takes constant, locally stores screenshots whenever you do anything, so naturally it’s going to tie up some hard drive space. Well…

So, fun fact, this is a feature whose usefulness increases determined by just how long of a, for lack of a better way of putting it, paper trail it has of your activities. 3 months is reasonable, in a sense, because you might have trouble remembering something you did over that length of time. That span, however, is representative of 25 GB of your storage, which is a lot considering most laptops come with 256 GB drives, unless you’re willing to pay more for a 512 or larger drive.

There are also security concerns. You might imagine that anyone with access to your PC or user profile might be able to rifle through this folder to find out what you’ve been up to. Which is comical, if mortifying, when it’s something like your “preferences”, but can have much larger implications when it comes to things that are meant to remain personal or secret. They cover this on the site, but it’s not exactly reassuring when their biggest security feature is that these screenshots are stored locally. And even more so when they mention how it won’t record DRM content, much like the Snipping Tool:

Oh boy, and it doesn’t hide passwords or financial account numbers?! What a wonderful feature!

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Naturally, there are a number of people who are skeptical of the value to actual, horrifying cost this feature brings.

Oh, and it seems very similar to an app released for Apple devices a year and a half ago called Rewind.

Long story short, this folder will suddenly become the top target for anyone trying to steal your data. Sure, it requires a bad actor to both unencrypt the screenshots and filter through hours of you watching potentially unmentionable videos, but it’s probably a considerable bit easier than going through the security on a major site or the like. But, hey, you’ll be able to find that site (you know, Amazon) that you found those white sneakers you liked, you SNEAKERHEAD!

You could, however, if you’re familiar with the operation of a web browser, drop a bookmark for those SNEAKERS, which I assure you takes up less drive space than even a screenshot. And also, it doesn’t have the potential to leak all of your important information (but no DRM content, thank God) all over the place if someone gets some wild ideas about your data.

Did… did anybody ask for this?

Source: ArsTechnica

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B. Simmons

Based out of Glendale California, Bryan is a GAMbIT's resident gaming contributor. Specializing in PC and portable gaming, you can find Bryan on his 3DS playing Monster Hunter or at one of the various conventions throughout the state.

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