Disclaimer

Microsoft on Friday said it will disable its much-criticized artificial intelligence (AI)-powered Recall feature by default and make it an opt-in.

Recall, currently in preview and coming exclusively to Copilot+ PCs on June 18, 2024, functions as an "explorable visual timeline" by capturing screenshots of what appears on users' screens every five seconds, which are subsequently analyzed and parsed to surface relevant information.

But the feature, meant to serve as some sort of an AI-enabled photographic memory, was met with instantaneous backlash from the security and privacy community, which excoriated the company for having not thought through enough and implementing adequate safeguards that could prevent malicious actors from easily gaining a window into a victim's digital life.

The recorded information could include screenshots of documents, emails, or messages containing sensitive details that may have been deleted or shared temporarily using disappearing or self-destructing formats popular on instant messaging platforms.