Windows Recall AI Feature Quietly Stores Plaintext Screenshots of Everything You Do
What happened
Microsoft's Recall feature for Copilot+ PCs was found to take encrypted screenshots of everything on-screen every few seconds and store them in a plaintext SQLite database accessible to any user-level process. Security researchers demonstrated malware that could exfiltrate the entire Recall database in seconds, capturing passwords, banking details, and private messages.[1]
What went wrong
The Recall database was stored without encryption accessible to the logged-in user, meaning any malware running with standard user privileges could read the entire history. Microsoft had not adequately threat-modelled local privilege escalation scenarios for a feature designed to record everything.[1]
Lesson learned
A feature that captures everything on screen is an extremely high-value target — security architecture must be commensurate with the sensitivity of the data collected. Privacy-by-design means the data minimisation and access controls are built first, not added in response to public criticism.
Sources
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