Microsoft’s much-debated Recall feature may need more time on the drawing board, after tech site Tom’s Hardware ran tests that showed “Recall screenshots credit cards and Social Security numbers, even with the ‘sensitive information’ filter enabled”.

Recall utilises Windows Copilot Runtime “to help you find anything you’ve seen on your PC”, Microsoft says.

“Search using any clues you remember or use the timeline to scroll through your past activity, including apps, documents, and websites. Once you’ve found what you’re looking for, you can quickly jump back to the content seen in the snapshot by selecting the relaunch button below the screenshot. The UserActivity API is what allows apps to provide deep links, so you can pick up where you left off.”

Hmm. A feature that takes snapshots of your activity. What could possibly go wrong?

On June 13 Microsoft updated its Recall blog: “Recall will now shift from a preview experience broadly available for Copilot+ PCs on June 18, 2024, to a preview available first in the Windows Insider Program (WIP) in the coming weeks. 

Tom’s Hardware form.

“Following receiving feedback on Recall from our Windows Insider Community, as we typically do, we plan to make Recall (preview) available for all Copilot+ PCs coming soon.”  

On August 21 it published: “With a commitment to delivering a trustworthy and secure Recall (preview) experience on Copilot+ PCs for customers, we’re sharing an update that Recall will be available to Windows Insiders starting in October. 

“As previously shared on June 13, we have adjusted our release approach to leverage the valuable expertise of our Windows Insider community prior to making Recall available for all Copilot+ PCs. Security continues to be our top priority and when Recall is available for Windows Insiders in October we will publish a blog with more details.” 

Another update was provided on October 31: “We recently shared updates to the security and privacy architecture for Recall. 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.”

Microsoft says “security is our top priority … this is reflected in additional security protections we are providing for Recall content, 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 Recall graphic.

“Despite promising to filter personal data out, Recall still captures it,” claims Tom’s Hardware. 

“In tests, however, this filter only worked in some situations (on two e-commerce sites), leaving a gaping hole in the protection it promises.”

When the reporter “entered a credit card number and a random username/password into a Windows Notepad window, Recall captured it, despite the fact that I had text such as ‘Capital One Visa’ right next to the numbers. Similarly, when I filled out a loan application PDF in Microsoft Edge, entering a social security number, name and DOB, Recall captured that”. 

“I also created my own HTML page with a web form that said, explicitly, ‘enter your credit card number below’. The form had fields for Credit card type, number, CVC and expiration date. I thought this might trigger Recall to block it, but the software captured an image of my form filled out, complete with the credit card data.”

The reporter added that “on the bright side, Recall refused to capture the credit card fields when I went to the payment pages of two online stores – Pimoroni and Adafruit. In both cases, it only captured either the screens before and after the credit card entry form or a blank form”.

“So, when it came to real-world commerce sites that I visited, Recall got it right. However, what my experiment proves is that it’s pretty much impossible for Microsoft’s AI filter to identify every situation where sensitive information is on screen and avoid capturing it.

“My examples were designed to test the filter, but they’re not fringe cases. Real people do put sensitive personal information into PDF forms. They write things down or copy and paste them into text files and then key them into websites that don’t look like typical shopping sites.”