Privacy Anxiety Pushes Microsoft Recall AI Release Again

The Recall AI tool will be available to Copilot+ PC subscribers in December, and can be used to record images of every interaction on the device for review later. Critics say this introduces major privacy and security concerns along with useful functionality.

Microsoft has made the decision to once again delay the release of its new artificial Intelligence tool, Recall, while the company works through trying to make sure all of the handy data it delivers cant be abused by adversaries.
The Recall tool will be part of the suite of services delivered through Microsofts AI Assistant software, Copilot+. Recalls job, once its rolled out, will be to gather snapshots of each action on the PC to be accessible later through an easy search. The software will be able to recall the exact moment the user saw a website, used an app, or interacted with a document.
Compelling use cases aside, information security professionals have
balked at Recalls ability to keep its snapshots secure
from would-be threat actors. For its part, Microsoft has taken these cybersecurity concerns seriously. In June, Microsoft announced it had added new
privacy and security features to Recall
just days ahead of its intended rollout date. That release was ultimately pushed back to October in order to take extra steps to shore up the tools security. Now, the release date has been pushed back again.
We are committed to delivering a secure and trusted experience with Recall, according to a statement about the delay from Brandon LeBlanc, senior product manager for Windows. To ensure we deliver on these important updates, we’re taking additional time to refine the experience before previewing it with Windows Insiders. Originally planned for October, Recall will now be available for preview with Windows Insiders on Copilot+ PCs by December.
In late September, David Weston, Microsofts vice president of enterprise and OS security, detailed the companys commitment to the
security of Recall data,
stressing the tool is opt-in only, encrypted, and includes malware protection; and, its data is protected in a virtualization-based security (VBS) enclave inaccessible by even admin and kernel users without biometric authentication.
Using VBS Enclaves with Windows Hello enhanced sign-in security allows data to be briefly decrypted while you use the Recall feature to search. Authorization will time out and require the user to authorize access for future sessions, Weston wrote. This restricts attempts by latent malware trying to ride along with a user authentication to steal data.
Weston further assured those concerned about Recalls security that: in-private browsing information is never saved by Recall; users have an option to filter out specific sites or apps from Recall recording; content filtering keeps data like credit card and Social Security numbers from being stored; users can delete stored information by date, content, app, or website; and an icon clearly shows when snapshots are being saved, so users can easily pause the function.
Recall’s secure design and implementation provides a robust set of controls against known threats, Weston added. Microsoft is committed to making the power of AI available to everyone, while retaining security and privacy against even the most sophisticated attacks.
It appears Microsoft is taking the warnings from the cybersecurity community about Recalls potential business risks seriously, Bugcrowd founder Casey Ellis tells Dark Reading. Redmond might also have its eye on a recent release of a similar tool in Anthropics Claude AI before rolling out Recall, he adds.
After the initial reaction to Recall — and some of the security and privacy concerns raised by how it was implemented — Microsoft appears to be hastening slowly here, Ellis says. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re taking the opportunity to learn from how the market responds to and uses Anthropic’s computer use feature, which is very similar to Recall from a privacy, security, and functionality standpoint.
Released just days ago, the
computer use feature
allows the latest version of Claude to interact with a computer in the same way as a human. Claudes new feature, like Recall, ingests screenshots from Internet-connected computers. And in its Oct. 22 announcement of the release, Anthropic admitted the tool does indeed come with inherent cybersecurity risks.
In this spirit, our Trust & Safety teams have conducted extensive analysis of our new computer-use models to identify potential vulnerabilities, the release announcement said. One concern theyve identified is
prompt injection — a type of cyberattack
where malicious instructions are fed to an AI model, causing it to either override its prior directions or perform unintended actions that deviate from the users original intent.
Anthropic added that it hopes to work out this and other issues in its public beta phase, which will certainly be of keen interest to Microsoft as it works through its Recall release.
Claude, according to Anthropic, will not use this user-submitted data to train its own AI model. But when it comes to Microsoft, security consultant John Bambenek isnt so sure Recall will adhere to the same standard.
AI systems require tons of data, which means Microsoft wants all the data on how users are interacting with their computers, Bambenek says. I am not sure the feature is terribly useful for end users, however, it certainly is for
training future models
. It has enormous privacy implications, so hopefully the delay is useful in terms of minimizing the risks and potential harms to end users.
While Microsoft security teams and Anthropics Claude feature testing move forward, Patrick Harr, CEO of SlashNext Email Security, warns these tools remain vulnerable to cyberattack.
We continually see phishing and socially engineered attacks from professional groups, mimicking support staff that target company users either through email, other messaging apps, or even bot calls to provide remote access to their desktops, Harr says. Once accessed into Recall, the threat actors have perfect timeline and information about that user that can be exploited. Proceed with caution until this update is done.

Last News
▸ Travel agency fined £150,000 for breaking Data Protection Act. ◂ Discovered: 23/12/2024 Category: security	▸ 7 arrested, 3 more charged in StubHub cyber fraud ring. ◂ Discovered: 23/12/2024 Category: security	▸ Nigerian scammers now turning into mediocre malware pushers. ◂ Discovered: 23/12/2024 Category: security

**Cyber Security Categories**
Google Dorks Database	Exploits Vulnerability	Exploit Shellcodes

CVE List

Tools/Apps

News/Aarticles

Phishing Database

Deepfake Detection

Trends/Statistics & Live Infos

Tags:
Privacy Anxiety Pushes Microsoft Recall AI Release Again