--- title: "Microsoft Announces Feature That Records Everything You Do on Your Computer for AI" description: "Microsoft has just unveiled a Windows feature to help users \"recall\" all their past activities by recording everything they do in real time. " date: "2024-05-21" modified: "2024-05-21" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/microsoft-recall-recording-feature" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "microsoft" - "surveillance" - "the digest" - "windows" --- # Microsoft Announces Feature That Records Everything You Do on Your Computer for AI ![Microsoft has just unveiled a Windows feature to help users "recall" all their past activities by recording everything they do in real time. ]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Total Recall Microsoft has just unveiled a forthcoming Windows AI feature to help users "recall" all their past activities — by recording everything they do in real-time. As [Microsoft explains on its website](), the feature — which is called "Recall" and is still being tested — takes "images of your active screen every few seconds." "The snapshots are encrypted and saved on your PC’s hard drive," the description continues. "You can use Recall to locate the content you have viewed on your PC using search or on a timeline bar that allows you to scroll through your snapshots." This functionality, as [*Ars Technica* explains](), extends beyond mere snapshots of your screen to include on-demand transcription and translation of video meetings and can show provide context for what they were doing during a given moment. In other words, it sounds a lot like "[Big Brother]()" for the small screen. ## Privacy Policy While Microsoft insists the features will be stored and encrypted locally on one's own hard drive, there's nothing stopping a bad actor who has gained access to a given PC from watching and saving everything a Recall user has done. As *Ars* points out, the privacy implications of this blow past being worried about one's porn browsing habits being watched and into safety issues, be it for journalists or political dissidents deemed enemies of the state or abused people who share their computers with their abusers. In attempts to assuage some of those concerns, the company appears to have taken extra steps to keep Recall information locked down and private to users. "Recall screenshots are only linked to a specific user profile and Recall does not share them with other users, make them available for Microsoft to view, or use them for targeting advertisements," the company wrote on its website. "Screenshots are only available to the person whose profile was used to sign in to the device." This is not, as *Ars* adds, the first time Microsoft has tried this sort of thing, either. Windows 10, for instance, [included a feature]() called "Timeline," which allowed users to scroll through historic documents, browser tabs, and applications from both PCs and Android phones when toggling between tasks. Timeline, however, didn't take its snapshots spontaneously, and was discontinued in 2021. Lucky for unwitting purchasers of Microsoft's AI-enabled Copilot+ PCs, Recall is still in beta testing, so it won't be unleashed on them anytime soon. Nevertheless, it sets a scary precedent to introduce this kind of AI feature given that [data privacy issues]() are too often overlooked in favor of the far-sexier [prospect of AGI](). **More on Microsoft:** [*Microsoft's Emissions and Water Use Shoot Up as It Goes All in on AI Datacenters*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()