Microsoft Confirms Windows Upgrade Choice—You Must Now Decide
Update: Republished on May 17 with new warnings over the enterprise risks from this new AI upgrade and a game-changing big brother threat to Windows users.
Microsoft has now released its latest update for Windows 11 users, which is mandatory given the raft of new security fixes accompanied by the near obligatory attack warnings. I covered the headline security fixes earlier, but perhaps just as critically this update comes with a very different warning and a key decision all users must now take.
"KB5058411 is a mandatory security update," Windows Latest explains, "it’s supposed to download and install automatically whether you like it or not." The catch with this one is that “we noticed that it finally turns on Recall, which is an AI-based feature that captures snapshots of your screen every few seconds.”
There can’t be any Windows 11 users who are still unaware of Microsoft’s controversial photographic memory upgrade — the headline AI feature now available on new Copilot+ devices. This raises significant concerns about individual privacy and security, as well as the potential for large-scale data breaches if a single device is compromised.
While firms can take action for themselves to disable Recall, the indirect third-party risk remains. Even if one user disables it, anything shared with someone who has enabled it will be saved to their device, which could still result in data leakage and cyber incidents.
"How secure is the encrypted database?" asks security expert Kevin Beaumont. "There’s much attack surface that needs exploring." He warns that info-stealer developers will likely target this feature first.
Another AI decision looms for Windows Copilot+ users, who are being rolled out an update for the Microsoft Copilot app on Windows via the Microsoft Store. This introduces "Hey, Copilot!" and allows users to invoke Copilot with a single phrase.
"Windows Insiders can now invoke Copilot with the phrase ‘Hey, Copilot!’", explains Microsoft. "This opt-in feature gives people a new way to easily start a conversation with Copilot Voice, anytime the feature is enabled, and their PC is unlocked." Like Recall, this requires users to opt in to use.
From a security and privacy standpoint, there seem to be some sensible precautions built in. When "Hey Copilot" is enabled, Copilot uses the microphone with an on-device wake word spotter that only detects the "Hey Copilot" phrase. The wake word spotter uses an on-device 10-second audio buffer in memory.
"Less controversial than Recall and likely an easier decision to make," notes PC Mag. "But for those who shun anything with a whiff of AI, there are indeed reasons that some people shouldn’t use it: Those who engage in super-secret conversations should probably steer clear and avoid communicating with people who use Recall, for instance."