Microsoft has discontinued the wide release of Recall — the controversial tool for Copilot+ PCs that takes regular snapshots of a machine to create a record of everything users do with their machines — and will instead make it available only to Windows Insiders for the foreseeable future .
Why We Think Microsoft's Windows Recall Is Really Bad
Recall was announced on May 20, when Redmond touted it as a handy tool to help users do things like remember the name of that really great website they visited last week but didn't bookmark, or find that email they sent to The Register with a really good tip. Recall uses AI to tease out queries that should, in theory, find that website or email — or anything else users did on their computers and want to dredge up.
That idea was not met with enthusiasm. Instead, it quickly sparked controversy after an FAQ was unearthed in which Microsoft admitted the tool could also record passwords or personal information – like bank account numbers. The prospect that anyone who can log on to a PC running Recall can access such data has obvious privacy implications.
Criticism flowed thick and fast.
