Last October, Windows 11 received one of the most important updates in its history; and as expected, the protagonist was Artificial Intelligence, with a large number of functions designed to help us on our computer. But one of the most anticipated features was nowhere to be found: we are talking about Recall, which is currently only available in a preview version.
At the time, Recall was announced as a revolution for Windows 11. Recall is capable of ‘remembering’ everything we have done on the computer, taking a screenshot from time to time and using AI to analyze the content and display the information we need. For example, Recall is capable of recovering that web page that we have forgotten, the conversation we had, or the document we need. The potential is tremendous, but the risk to privacy is perhaps greater.
In response to initial criticism, Microsoft announced several changes to Recall, which among other things minimize the amount of private data it can obtain; But just a few weeks after the launch of Recall, it is already evident that these measures were not enough, and that Recall obtains private data despite Microsoft’s promises.
This is what Avram Piltch of Tom’s Hardwarewhich found to its surprise that Recall had captured personal data such as the credit card number, usernames and password, and social security number. Perhaps most worrying is that the data was obtained even if it was in the context of being private; for example, if they were entered into a form on a website that explicitly asks for a credit card number.
This indicates that Recall’s AI is ignoring the context of the data, and that raises questions about the alleged measures that Microsoft would have taken to improve privacy. For example, Piltch created a fake website that asked for credit card number, CVC, and expiration date; even though the data was correctly labeled, since this data can be used to make purchases with the card, Recall captured them too.
All this data is especially sensitive, and depending on the country, it can even be used to steal someone else’s identityin addition to your money; The fact that Recall captures them is something serious, considering that it should not do so, although in theory, there is no danger to users yet.
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Microsoft ensures that Recall data is saved encrypted in our computer’s memory, and are not sent to an external server. The only way to access this data, and the Recall function, is with Windows Hello; so we must enter our password, or unlock the device with facial or fingerprint recognition. However, Microsoft may have a hard time convincing users that Recall is safe, if it’s already doing things it promised it wouldn’t do.
At the moment, Microsoft has not made a public statement regarding the release of this issue; but it has directed journalists to a statement made with the launch of Recall, which states that it will continue to “improve the functionality” of detecting sensitive data and asks for help to improve the product, asking users of the previous version to communicate these types of errors.
