Is Recall in your future?

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ON SECURITY By Susan Bradley Don’t panic. Microsoft Recall, the new Microsoft technology that records what you are doing on a Windows 11 PC so you can
[See the full post at: Is Recall in your future?]

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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fisher75, windbg, Cybertooth, Sueska, rc primak, AlexEiffel, DLivesInTexas, Norio, lmacri, Alex5723

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Susan Bradley wrote:

Is Recall in your future?

I thought that the goal of Recall is the past 🙂

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Cybertooth, Sueska, rc primak

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IMO Microsoft has revamped and automated a utility that has been there since Windows 7…Problem Step Recorder which takes screenshots and logs every action a user takes for a short period of time. Appears that Recall does the same except it takes more screenshots. I wonder if the Recall files are zipped like PSR files are; and are the screenshots Recall saves in a .mht format.
That being said I wonder why Recall requires so much advance hardware to run and take more screenshots than PSR.

HTH, Dana:))

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Drcard:)) wrote:

That being said I wonder why Recall requires so much advance hardware to run and take more screenshots than PSR.

Recall includes a semantic index to allow contextual searches of images and text.

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rc primak

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The search ability.   Which I found okay but not outstanding.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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rc primak

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I can’t find a use case for me where it would do anything but take up space on my drive with its log files.  I don’t use Search, have it disabled in Services.  I don’t leave stuff hanging; if I’m not finished with something, I just save it and come back to it when I’m ready to finish, and I always have multiple copies of my data via Task Scheduler.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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TechTango, Steve S., Microfix

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FWIW, as a homeuser, it’s just something else to add to the ever-growing disable/ block or remove list since the 29th July 2015.
Quite simply, not required and of no usable ‘must have’ significance.

In anticipation, I’m more enthusiastic about the utilities I use providing a method to obliterate it from existance at system-level and user-level without affecting file integrity or the DISM image before eventually hopping over to 24H2, post testing 😛

If debian is good enough for NASA...

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TechTango, Cybertooth, Steve S.

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Microfix wrote:

FWIW, as a homeuser, it’s just something else to add to the ever-growing disable/ block or remove list since the 29th July 2015.
Quite simply, not required and of no usable ‘must have’ significance.

It’s an option which is disabled by default.

Microfix wrote:

In anticipation, I’m more enthusiastic about the utilities I use providing a method to obliterate it from existance at system-level and user-level without affecting file integrity or the DISM image before eventually hopping over to 24H2, post testing 😛

It can be removed from Windows Features and can be blocked with Group Policy.

But until you buy a new CoPilot+ PC with NPU you don’t need to worry about it.

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Not a chance I’ll be using Recall — ever.

Every day that passes, my interest in Windows wanes more and more.

These days I primarily only use Windows for analyzing Windows malware.

Linux is the future — err present.

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Hear Hear!  Everyone should understand that it takes a screenshot every few seconds, and will capture PERSONAL INFORMATION in them, it will  transmit it to Micro$oft’s cloud.  This could be the definition of malware.

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Let me be very clear – I did not find it transmitting information to the cloud.  The indexing is on your computer – ergo why it ‘s limited to certain processors.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Susan Bradley wrote:

Then a massive security retooling was carried out, resulting in a biometric login prompt to launch Recall if the session timed out. I’ve yet to find any adjustments to that timeout feature. As a person who logs in to quite a few two-factor applications, being able to adjust how long it takes to prove who you are goes a long way in ensuring that the application isn’t deemed annoying.

This would only be a concern if you were searching Recall very often, because you found it very useful. Even then, a minor inconvenience with easy and quick identification via face or fingerprint. Would you really want the secure session left open long-term or indefinitely when you weren’t using it?

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It was a VERY short window B.  Every other two factor has a reasonasble editing function.  This has no such edit and thus why it’s a beta where we can give feedback.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Susan Bradley wrote:

Once upon a time in Office, you could set up autosave so that any Word or Excel file could automatically save after a certain number of minutes. This was handy if you were in the middle of a document and accidentally forgot to save it as you shut down the computer. That feature was very useful for weather-related power outages, especially if your business lacked uninterruptible power supplies. It saved several large Excel spreadsheets for us because the UPS’s beep-beep-beep warning gave us time to save work documents. Now that feature is implemented only when saving to the cloud.

AutoRecover works for local files in all versions of Word and Excel just as it has for nearly 30 years:

If Word opens a document from your local disk or network shared folder, Word uses AutoRecover to save changes to an AutoRecover file. We recommend that you leave the AutoRecover feature set to On, and set the AutoRecover save interval to five minutes or less. [Default is 10 minutes.]

Word searches for AutoRecover files every time it starts. Therefore, you can try using the AutoRecover feature by closing and reopening Word.

How to recover unsaved Word documents

AutoSave is an additional Microsoft 365 feature for cloud files since it was introduced to Office 365 nearly 10 years ago:

AutoSave is a new feature available in Excel, Word, and PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 subscribers that saves your file automatically, every few seconds, as you work.

AutoSave is enabled by default in Microsoft 365 when a file is stored on OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, or SharePoint Online.

What is AutoSave?

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rc primak

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As a person who has lost a few spreadsheets throughout the years, it’s not always dependable (nor should it be).

 

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Recall to the rescue then 😁. You just found a use case 👍.

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Does the Recall feature include an option that will delete all images and logs at the user’s command? If not, I see Recall as a case of trading privacy and security for convenience and efficiency – even if it doesn’t transmit anything to the cloud. What if a user undertook activities in a State (or Country) where certain politicized things have been criminalized? Smart phones have already been used to prosecute such things. Laptops and desktops can be confiscated.

Win10 Pro x64 22H2, Win10 Home 22H2, Linux Mint + a cat with 'tortitude'.

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Cybertooth

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Steve S. wrote:

Does the Recall feature include an option that will delete all images and logs at the user’s command?

Yes:

Settings, Privacy & Security, Recall & Snapshots, Delete snapshots, Delete all

Manage your Recall snapshots and disk space — Delete snapshots

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well, that seems to have backfired already..
https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/is-recall-in-your-future/#post-2725431

also highlighted over on ghacks:
https://www.ghacks.net/2024/12/13/the-revised-recall-on-windows-11-is-still-recording-information-that-it-should-not/

If debian is good enough for NASA...

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Those don’t mention deleting snapshots. 😕

Good news is that Recall did block the recording of credit card information when the author visited two online stores.

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Hi Susan:

From the 13-Dec-2024 Neowin article Despite assurances, Windows 11’s Recall still captures a lot of sensitive data :

For example, Recall captured a credit card number in Windows Notepad and a fully filled loan application in the Edge browser. The same happened with a simple HTML page with fields for credit card information like number, CVC, expiration date, etc. Despite the obvious clues, Recall ignored its filters and captured everything as is.

That sounds similar to your comment in your ISSUE 21.50 • 2024-12-09 newsletter article :

I went into my password-manager software, looked at one record, and unmasked the password so I could see it. Recall software did not save that session …. However, Recall did grab an image of the password on a website after I clicked the “eyeball” to expose the password. If Recall is running, you’ll need to pay close attention. Perhaps Microsoft’s claim about security is only partially valid.

———–
Dell Inspiron 15 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.5247 * Firefox v133.0.3 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.24090.11-1.1.24090.11 * Malwarebytes Premium v5.2.3.156-1.0.5108 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7783

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windbg, Cybertooth

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If you run Recall then making sure Bitlocker has encrypted your disk and having a strong password is probably a minimum requirement.

cheers, Paul

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Recall can’t be used without those.

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Like any new technology, it’s not foolproof.  They do say it will not capture screens in “inprivate” mode.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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The revised Recall on Windows 11 is still recording information that it should not

Recall continues to be a privacy disaster. Reports suggest that the AI feature is recording sensitive information, even with the sensitive information filter enabled…

[Moderator edit] trimmed quote again…

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