Microsoft releases screenshot monitoring feature for select PCs

Microsoft has gradually rolled out a new screenshots monitoring feature named Recall for certain PCs throughout April 2025, as reported by Forbes.

The feature only works for Copilot+ Windows 11 PCs, and it’s programmed to take periodic screenshots of a user’s PC. 

These screenshots are encrypted and stored locally on the user’s device, after which users can leverage Recall’s AI to search for data within these screenshots.

To address privacy concerns, Microsoft implemented some safeguards before its full launch.  

Recall is an optional feature that can only be set up with Windows Hello — the company’s biometric verification system, according to David Weston, Microsoft’s Vice President of Security. It can also be uninstalled at any time.

Screenshots can be paused, and users can filter out certain applications and web pages that the user does not want to track.

The feature also includes “application-level filters” that prevent the capture of any sensitive data in a screenshot.

Criticism Against Recall: 

While positioned as a powerful productivity tool, Recall has drawn significant criticism from cybersecurity experts.  

Concerns are due to a general lack of trust with AI processing private information, and privacy concerns.

Once Recall is set up, biometric verification is no longer required to access the screenshots taken — users can simply use a standard four-digit PIN.

Some have linked Recall to spyware, suggesting that the software can be misused to access sensitive information or surveil users without their consent.

Spyware is a type of malicious software that secretly installs on a user’s device without their knowledge and collects their information, including browsing history, passwords, personal data, and keystrokes. This information is then relayed to a third-party organization. 

 

Moreover, Recall’s webpage filtering only works for certain browsers, including Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Chrome, and Opera 

Security researcher Kevin Beaumont reported that, despite Recall’s application filters, it still captured screenshots containing his credit card details and private conversations. 

Users can also expect Recall to take up a significant portion of their PC’s memory. A PC with 1 or more TB of storage space will allocate 150 GB to store Recall’s screenshots.

Additional Information:

A Beta version of Recall was first introduced in 2024. In it’s recent launch, Microsoft also introduced two new features exclusively for Copilot+ PCs :

• Advanced Windows Search: which interprets the contextual meaning of a user’s query to deliver faster and more intuitive search results. 
• Click to Do: An AI shortcut tool that can summarize, copy, or extract text and images instantly.