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Microsoft starts shipping controversial Recall feature to limited users on Copilot+ PCs

Concerns raised by cybersecurity experts had forced the tech giant to pause the rollout and refine the Recall feature.

Microsoft's Recall feature makes everything you do on your PC searchable. (Express Photo)

Microsoft is offering select users an exclusive preview of its revamped version of Recall on the latest Copilot+ PCs. The the AI search feature, that allows devices to have “photographic memory”, ran into controversy earlier this year.

Currently, Recall is available for owners of Copilot+ PCs who are also part of Microsoft’s Windows Insider Program. Computers powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon chips and neural processing units can download and install a build of the feature. This means that Copilot+ PCs with AMD or Intel chips are not compatible, according to a report by CNBC.

In May this year, Microsoft had announced that Recall would be available on its Copilot+ PCs with Windows 11 operating system. Using AI, Recall takes screenshots of everything the user does on the laptop so that they can quickly and easily search for previously viewed content.

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However, experts pointed out that Recall posed serious cybersecurity risks, forcing the software giant to put the rollout on hold and work on refining the AI feature.

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Since the backlash, Microsoft said that Recall’s underlying database of screenshots of user activity will be encrypted and that the feature will be turned off by default. Users can also reportedly revisit a website or app that they were browsing at the time by clicking a link below the screenshot captured by Recall.

Despite these changes, it seems that there are certain issues with Recall that still need to be resolved. For instance, it fails to show all the screenshots relevant to a user’s search query and struggles to load screenshots quickly. Additionally, Recall leaves out user activity between snapshots, CNBC reported.