Microsoft revealed the Recall feature in Copilot+ PCs last month that lets you find what you’ve seen on your PC, since it takes snapshots of what appears on your screen frequently.
After several complaints of privacy issues, ahead of the launch on June 18th, the company has announced that it will be an opt-in feature.
Regarding this, Microsoft said:
Even before making Recall available to customers, we have heard a clear signal that we can make it easier for people to choose to enable Recall on their Copilot+ PC and improve privacy and security safeguards. With that in mind we are announcing updates that will go into effect before Recall (preview) ships to customers on June 18.
Microsoft has also mandated Windows Hello enrollment to enable Recall. In addition, proof of presence is also required to view your timeline and search in Recall, the company added.
Even though the company already mentioned that all the snapshots will be stored locally, with privacy and controls built-in, it has now announced that it is adding additional layers of data protection including “just in time” decryption protected by Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-in Security (ESS), so Recall snapshots will only be decrypted and accessible when the user authenticates.
Microsoft also announced that it has encrypted the search index database.