Microsoft calls Recall one of its most ‘secure experiences’

As part of its Ignite 2024 announcements, Microsoft has provided an update on how its AI-powered Recall feature will work in the context of an IT department. Noting that the company has “heard your feedback,” specifically in terms of it needing it to be more “secure and controllable,” Microsoft claims to have gotten its ducks in a row for the launch of its controversial new Windows 11 feature.

Microsoft says that Recall “will ship with meaningful security enhancements, including additional layers of data encryption and Windows Hello protection, making it one of the most secure experiences we have ever built.” Whether or not this will be enough to satisfy the security community, however, is still to be determined.

There’s been a concerted effort on Microsoft’s part to retool the feature to ensure better security, and the company is certainly taking its time. Recall was initially scheduled to be released for testing in June. The delay moved it back to October, and the latest update has moved it back to December. That still doesn’t indicate when a wider rollout to Copilot+ PCs will take place, though.

Importantly, Microsoft restates that Recall will be disabled by default, but also that IT will need to manually enable it before making it available to employees. The feature has gone from being the flagship AI feature in Windows to being turned off by default — to now even being hidden entirely. Keeping it out of the hands of employees is certainly one way of ensuring that it’s safe.

But hiding it from employees is essential for IT administrators to be able to do, especially in highly controlled or sensitive environments where PCs are used. Billed as giving your PC “photographic memory,” Recall was always going to be seen as highly suspect in the IT world. That’s especially true since Recall can’t, in fact, be uninstalled entirely.

The saga started earlier this year at Build 2024, where Recall was announced it as the flagship feature underpinning its new Copilot+ PC push. It was the primary way of selling the industry on the need for local AI processing in the form of the neural processing unit (NPU), so it’s crucial for Microsoft to gain back trust on this feature after its initial fumble. This is especially true with the rollout of Apple Intelligence on its heels.

In addition to updates on Recall, Microsoft has also highlighted two other previously -announced AI features coming to Windows: Click To Do and Improved Windows Search. Click To Do uses the same technology as Recall to allow AI to see and interact with the apps on-screen, while Improved Windows Search uses AI to bring natural language searches across Windows. This includes both local and cloud files, as well as the Windows search box and Settings.

None of these AI features are available just yet, so we’ll still have to wait through the coming months to try them out.