Microsoft says AI feature that captures screenshots on new PCs will be off by default after backlash
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks at an event on Microsoft’s campus in Redmond, Washington, on May 20, 2024.
Chona Kasinger | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Microsoft said an artificial intelligence feature on new PCs that captures screenshots and enables search of user activity will be off by default after security researchers determined that attackers could access the underlying data.
The Recall feature was one of the main capabilities Microsoft showed during a press briefing last month for forthcoming Copilot+ PCs with AI computing power onboard.
“If you don’t proactively choose to turn it on, it will be off by default,” Pavan Davuluri, Microsoft’s head of Windows and Surface devices, wrote in a blog post on Friday.
Microsoft has been trying to balance competing interests of late as it moves to incorporate new generative AI tools into its products and to keep up with the competition. While the market is evolving rapidly, user privacy and security are under a microscope. A U.S. government review board recently criticized Microsoft’s handling of China’s breach of U.S. government officials’ email accounts.
Microsoft has already added the Copilot conversational chatbot into Windows in a way that resembles OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT. Both ChatGPT and Copilot rely on servers in the cloud to perform necessary computations and then send back responses to PCs. Recall is different in that it keeps data on users’ computers and doesn’t need to access supplemental computing power over the internet.
Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO, directed employees to put security first and announced changes to its security practices following the U.S. government report.
After Microsoft announced Recall, which can search through a log of previous actions on PCs, industry experts began questioning the potential for hackers to retrieve users’ information.
Security practitioners released software called Total Recall that displays data Recall collects.
“Windows Recall stores everything locally in an unencrypted SQLite database, and the screenshots are simply saved in a folder on your PC,” they wrote in a description of Total Recall on GitHub. They expressed concern about attackers developing tools that can look for usernames and passwords contained in Recall screenshots.
Microsoft is adding security protections to Recall in addition to requiring people to manually turn it on once Copilot+ PCs become available on June 18. The search index database will be encrypted, Microsoft said.
“Windows Hello enrollment is required to enable Recall,” Davuluri wrote. “In addition, proof of presence is also required to view your timeline and search in Recall.”
With Windows Hello, users prove their identity by entering a PIN number, showing their face to the PC camera or providing a fingerprint.
“I think overall having a choice around opting in on home systems will save a lot of people security problems further down the line,” Kevin Beaumont, a former Microsoft cybersecurity analyst who criticized the original implementation of Recall, said in a Friday post on X. “It never should have been enabled by default.”
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An Amazon worker moves boxes on Amazon Prime Day in the East Village of New York City, July 11, 2023.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
Amazon is extending its Prime Day discount bonanza, announcing that the annual sale will run four days this year.
The 96-hour event will start at 12:01 a.m. PT on July 8, and continue through July 11, Amazon said in a release.
For the first time, the company will roll out themed “deal drops” that change daily and are available “while supplies last.” Amazon has in recent years toyed with adding more limited-run and invite-only deals during Prime Day events to create a feeling of urgency or scarcity.
Amazon launched Prime Day in 2015 as a way to secure new members for its $139-a-year loyalty program, and to promote its own products and services while providing a sales boost in the middle of the year. In 2019, the company made Prime Day a 48-hour event, and it’s since added a second Prime Day-like event in the fall.
Prime Day is also a significant revenue driver for other retailers, which often host competing discount events.
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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks during the Snowflake Summit in San Francisco on June 2, 2025.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty Images
OpenAI has been awarded a $200 million contract to provide the U.S. Defense Department with artificial intelligence tools.
The department announced the one-year contract on Monday, months after OpenAI said it would collaborate with defense technology startup Anduril to deploy advanced AI systems for “national security missions.”
“Under this award, the performer will develop prototype frontier AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges in both warfighting and enterprise domains,” the Defense Department said. It’s the first contract with OpenAI listed on the Department of Defense’s website.
Anduril received a $100 million defense contract in December. Weeks earlier, OpenAI rival Anthropic said it would work with Palantir and Amazon to supply its AI models to U.S. defense and intelligence agencies.
Sam Altman, OpenAI’s co-founder and CEO, said in a discussion with OpenAI board member and former National Security Agency leader Paul Nakasone at a Vanderbilt University event in April that “we have to and are proud to and really want to engage in national security areas.”
OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Defense Department specified that the contract is with OpenAI Public Sector LLC, and that the work will mostly occur in the National Capital Region, which encompasses Washington, D.C., and several nearby counties in Maryland and Virginia.
Meanwhile, OpenAI is working to build additional computing power in the U.S. In January, Altman appeared alongside President Donald Trump at the White House to announce the $500 billion Stargate project to build AI infrastructure in the U.S.
The new contract will represent a small portion of revenue at OpenAI, which is generating over $10 billion in annualized sales. In March, the company announced a $40 billion financing round at a $300 billion valuation.
In April, Microsoft, which supplies cloud infrastructure to OpenAI, said the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency has authorized the use of the Azure OpenAI service with secret classified information.
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