Total recall: Microsoft feature for computers sparks privacy debate

Recall on Copilot Plus computers will memorise and save everything that's on a PC user's screen

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies that the world is excited about are “reliant on mass surveillance”, said Meredith Whittaker, the top executive of encrypted messaging platform Signal, recently.

At a startup conference in Europe, Whittaker cautioned against blind enthusiasm and said concerns about surveillance and AI were "two framings of the same thing".

Surveillance and AI made headlines when, at the Microsoft Build 2024 event, the global technology giant introduced a new range of AI-powered personal computers called the Copilot Plus PC with a feature called ‘Recall’.

Recall’s “photographic memory” will allow users to remember things that they viewed on their computers while navigating