Microsoft said on Thursday that its AI-powered computer-usage tracking feature, “Recall,” won't be rolled out to new computers launching next week due to privacy concerns, and will instead preview it to a smaller group at a later date.
The Recall feature tracks everything from web browsing to voice chats and stores the history on the computer so that users can search it when they need to remember something, even months later.
Microsoft said in a blog post that Recall won't be made broadly available to Copilot+ PC users on June 18, but will only be available as a preview in the Windows Insider Program (WIP) for the next few weeks.
The Redmond, Washington-based company said the decision was “based on our commitment to providing a reliable, secure and robust experience for all customers and to seek additional feedback before offering the feature to all Copilot+ PC users.”
Copilot+ PC is a category of personal computers with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities that was announced in May.
WIP is a public software testing program that allows millions of “Windows enthusiasts” to preview upcoming features of the operating system.
The company said that it plans to make the Recall preview available on all Copilot+ PCs soon after receiving feedback from the WIP community.
The feature quickly raised privacy concerns, with some social media users raising concerns that it could enable espionage, while billionaire technologist Elon Musk called it an “episode of Black Mirror,” comparing it to the Netflix series that explores the harmful effects of advanced technology.
