WTF Total Recall: Microsoft’s New AI Feature Is Basically a Gift-Wrapped Privacy Breach

[Cody]

Microsoft’s enshittification machine at full throttle.

You’d think after last year’s backlash, Microsoft might pause and consider whether recording everything you do on your computer every five seconds is maybe, possibly, a terrible idea. Instead, they’ve doubled down.

Welcome back to Recall, the AI “productivity” feature that’s actually just an unencrypted, locally stored surveillance tool. Rolled out again via Windows 11 preview builds, Recall captures a screenshot of your screen every few seconds, indexes it using AI, and makes it searchable using natural language. Sounds helpful - until you realise it’s also a goldmine for anyone with bad intentions.

Here’s why security and privacy experts are yelling into the void:​

• Screenshots of everything. Constantly. Websites, private chats, passwords, health info, encrypted messages. If it hits your screen, Recall saves it. Including disappearing Signal messages. Yeah.
• Opt-in doesn't mean safe. Even if you don’t enable Recall, your info can still get captured on someone else’s machine. So much for consent.
• No encryption. The entire Recall database is stored locally as plain text. It’s just sitting there. You don’t even have to be a hacker to get at it. Just a curious roommate or dodgy IT guy with admin access.
• Already exploited. Ethical hackers have already released tools like “TotalRecall” to show just how easy it is to extract and browse your entire digital life. Spoiler: It’s disturbingly easy.
• It’s built like spyware. If a random app offered to log your screen every five seconds and store it all in a searchable index, you’d call it malware. But because it’s Microsoft? It’s “productivity.”
• No content moderation. Microsoft openly admits Recall won’t censor anything. Passwords, account numbers, private messages - it grabs everything, context be damned.

Let’s call it what it is: a privacy dumpster fire.​

Microsoft promises it won’t train its AI on your data. It says everything stays on your device. But they’ve also built a system that makes it trivially easy for bad actors, malicious partners, employers, stalkers, hackers, to extract your digital history in seconds. You know, just in case anyone forgot how spyware usually works.

And even with controls like app exclusions and pause buttons, that doesn’t fix the core problem: Recall turns your PC into a rolling archive of everything you've seen, done, and clicked. That's not helpful; it’s dangerous.

This isn’t the future of computing. It’s just surveillance with a productivity sticker slapped on top. And Microsoft should know better.

Until Recall is truly recalled, maybe just stick to your own memory. It’s not perfect, but at least it’s secure.