Microsoft’s New “Recall” Feature Takes Constant Screenshots Of Your PC

Would you allow an AI to take constant screenshots of whatever you do on your PC?

The week full of company drama and mind-blowing AI product announcements isn’t over yet.

• OpenAI releasing GPT-4o and real-time voice support in ChatGPT

• Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike left their post in OpenAI

• Google unveiling Project Astra, Veo, Imagen 3, and more in Google IO 2024

•  Scarlet Johansson expressed anger over ChatGPT’s chatbot voice that “sounded so eerily similar” to hers

It’s one heck of a week in the world of AI.

But don’t put your popcorn away just yet, because Microsoft has just announced a slew of brand new AI-powered hardware and software at Microsoft Build 2024.

No, I won’t be covering all the new products in this article. Instead, I’ll focus on one feature that triggered my ick as an AI enthusiast. The new feature is called “Recall”.

What is Recall?

This new AI-powered tool can search and recall anything you’ve seen or done on your Windows 11 PC, including activities in apps, communications in live meetings, and websites visited for research, by taking constant screenshots.

Essentially, it’s an upgraded version of Windows Timeline, which was introduced back in Windows 10 but discontinued because it didn’t gain traction among users.

How often does Recall take screenshots?

It uses Copilot+ PC advanced processing capabilities to take images of your active screen every few seconds. Yes, that level of excessive surveillance is comparable to security cameras. 

Imagine handing your laptop to your wife, forgetting about last night’s steamy incognito searches, and having Recall eagerly offer to pull up the “busty babes” results again — that’s awkward.

Would you still want this feature enabled on your machine? I don’t think so. Not only that, but it also takes up a massive amount of storage space on your local disk.

How does it work?