Is Windows Recall private? What it saves and who can open it

The Morse teamPublished October 27, 20269 min read

As of October 2026, Windows Recall is private from Microsoft but not from anyone who can unlock your PC. Microsoft says Recall keeps its screenshots, called snapshots, encrypted on your device and that it "can't access or view the snapshots" (Microsoft). Recall is off until you opt in. Once it's on, it saves a snapshot of your active screen every few seconds, and anyone who passes Windows Hello on your PC can open them, including with your PIN (Microsoft).

On October 27, 2026, we read Microsoft's Recall support pages, its Recall guides for IT admins, and its September 27, 2024 post on Recall's security design. We also read The Register's August 2025 test of Recall, a security researcher's 2026 report, and the posts in which Signal, Brave, and AdGuard explain how they block Recall. After the 2024 preview drew criticism, Microsoft made Recall opt-in, encrypted it inside a secure enclave, made it removable, and documented every setting.

Windows Recall privacy at a glance

Each row is from Microsoft's own pages, read October 27, 2026. Microsoft still labels Recall a preview, though it reached general release on Copilot+ PCs on April 25, 2025 (Microsoft Learn).

Does Recall send data to Microsoft?

No, not your snapshots. Microsoft says no internet or cloud connection is "required or used to save and analyze snapshots" (Microsoft). It says Recall doesn't share snapshots with Microsoft, with third parties, or with other Windows users on the same PC. The text in each snapshot is read by optical character recognition that runs on the PC (Microsoft).

Four things do cross the network. Some diagnostic data may go to Microsoft "based on the user's privacy settings," as with any Windows feature. Recall sometimes fetches favicons and other metadata from the websites in your snapshots. Feedback you file from inside Recall sends "data from Recall to Microsoft, including any screenshots that you attach" (Microsoft). In the European Economic Area, you can export your snapshots to an app or website, which decrypts them with an export code shown to you once at setup (Microsoft).

Is Windows Recall on by default?

No. Saving snapshots is off for each new user until that user opts in, in Recall's setup or under Settings, Privacy & security, Recall & snapshots (Microsoft). On a PC that several people sign in to, each person decides for themselves. Recall itself is available by default on a Copilot+ PC that no organization manages (Microsoft).

The opt-in dates from June 7, 2024, when Microsoft changed the Copilot+ PC setup so that Recall would be off "if you don't proactively choose to turn it on" (Microsoft). Guides written before then describe a different Recall.

Who can open your Recall snapshots?

Anyone who can pass Windows Hello as you. Microsoft's privacy page says you must have a face or fingerprint sign-in set up to use Recall (Microsoft). Its own Recall guide says Recall supports Windows Hello sign-in "with your face, fingerprint, or PIN" by default (Microsoft). The Register's tester opened Recall over TeamViewer, and "When it asked for my face, I just gave it my PIN instead" (The Register, August 1, 2025).

We set out each person who might want your snapshots against what Microsoft and the researchers say. The court row is our reading of Microsoft's pages, and this isn't legal advice.

Is Microsoft Recall safe?

Safer than the 2024 preview, with two gaps you should plan for. Microsoft's design keeps snapshots and the search database "always encrypted," with keys usable only inside a Virtualization-based Security (VBS) enclave, and says that "processes outside the VBS Enclaves never directly receive access to snapshots or encryption keys" (Microsoft, September 27, 2024). A third-party security firm reviewed the design and ran a penetration test, according to the same post.

The first gap is the malware row above. Alexander Hagenah, the researcher who built TotalRecall Reloaded, calls the enclave "rock solid," but says the Recall timeline app receives decrypted snapshots after you authenticate, and that any program running as you can read them there (GitHub). He says he reported this to Microsoft on March 6, 2026. Microsoft's security team closed the report on April 3, 2026, saying the behavior "operates within the current, documented security design of Recall." These are his claims, and Microsoft hasn't confirmed them as a flaw.

The second gap is the filter. Microsoft's reference list of what the sensitive information filter looks for runs from ABA routing numbers to U.S. Social Security numbers, plus passwords and cloud keys (Microsoft Learn). Every entry is a number, an ID, or a credential, so a page about your health or your money in plain words isn't on it. In The Register's test, Recall saved a bank's home page with the balance showing, a card form once its labels were removed, and a list of passwords that didn't use the word "password" (The Register).

Website filters have limits too. Microsoft says a site is filtered only while it's the open tab in a supported browser, so parts of it can still appear in embedded content, your browser history, or the tab strip (Microsoft).

Which apps block Recall?

Signal and Brave block it by default, and AdGuard for Windows has a switch for it. Microsoft documents the flag behind Signal's approach. A window flagged with WDA_EXCLUDEFROMCAPTURE "won't show up in Recall or any other screenshot application" (Microsoft Learn).

Signal wrote that Microsoft launched Recall "without granular settings for app developers," which is why it blocks every screenshot (Signal). To turn it off, open Signal Settings, then Privacy, then Screen security. In Brave, the switch is Block Microsoft Recall at brave://settings/privacy (Brave).

How do you turn off Recall?

Open Settings, then Privacy & security, then Recall & snapshots, and set Save snapshots to Off (Microsoft). Each change asks for Windows Hello. Pick how far to go:

1. Pause. Select the Recall icon in the system tray and choose Pause until tomorrow. Saving resumes at 12:00 AM (Microsoft).
2. Delete. Under Delete snapshots, choose Delete all, or delete the past hour, 24 hours, 7 days, or 30 days (Microsoft).
3. Shorten what's kept. Set Maximum storage duration for snapshots to 30 days instead of leaving it unset.
4. Reset. Under Advanced settings, choose Reset Recall to delete every snapshot and setting. A reset doesn't delete snapshots you exported (Microsoft).
5. Remove. Search the taskbar for Turn Windows features on or off, uncheck Recall, and restart. Microsoft says this deletes the snapshots already saved.

How to keep your AI chats out of Recall

Recall copies pixels. Any AI chat open on your screen, in any app or browser and under any privacy setting the service offers, can land in a snapshot, and the sensitive information filter looks for numbers and IDs, not subjects.

On Morse, a chat exists in two places on your PC, and only one of them is Recall's business. The first is your history, which sits in your browser's own database, encrypted, and never on Morse's servers. A snapshot doesn't open that database. It records only the chat you have on screen. When you sign out, the history locks, and opening it again needs a key kept on your device plus one Morse issues at sign-in, so copied browser files alone are unreadable. The second place is the screen, and that one answers to Recall's settings:

• Filter the site. Under Websites to filter, add the address of each AI service you use. Microsoft says website filters work in Edge, Chrome, Firefox, and Opera (Microsoft).
• Filter the browser. In any other browser, add the browser itself under Apps to filter.
• Clean up. If a snapshot already shows a chat, open it and choose Delete all for that website.
• Or turn Recall off, using the steps above.

Recall treats every Morse mode the same, so pick the mode for who else sees the words once they leave your screen:

• E2EE, for a chat no server should read. Your browser verifies the enclave and seals each message for it, so Morse passes along only ciphertext, as long as the enclave hardware and attestation work as designed. It comes with Pro, $19 a month.
• Private, for open-weight models whose hosts keep nothing, under Morse's zero data retention agreements with its inference, search, and other providers.
• Anonymous, for GPT, Claude, or Gemini sent without your account, email, or IP address. The provider reads the words without knowing it's you, and may hold them for a limited time to check for abuse, under its own policy.

Whatever the mode, Morse doesn't train AI on what you write, sell your data, or show ads, and since Morse stores no chats, it usually has very little to give authorities (privacy policy). History that lives only in your browser goes when the browser data goes, and Morse can't recover it, so save what you need. For Microsoft's chatbot, see is Copilot private, and on a PC your employer manages, read what your employer can see first.

So is Windows Recall private enough for you?

• From Microsoft: yes, by Microsoft's own pages. Leave screenshots out of any feedback you send from Recall.
• From people at your PC: only if no one else knows your PIN, since a PIN opens Recall.
• From malware: not once you've unlocked Recall, by one researcher's account. If you suspect anything is running that shouldn't be, remove Recall.
• For banking and passwords: filter your bank's site and your password manager app, and don't rely on the sensitive information filter alone.
• For AI chats: filter the site or the browser. Apple's system makes a different trade, covered in is Apple Intelligence private.

Filter the AI sites you use in Recall's settings, then try a chat from the Morse home page without an account, or start free and move to Pro when you want E2EE.