Privacy and Security Enable or Disable Filter Sensitive Information on Recall Snapshots in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off "Filter sensitive information" on Recall snapshots for your account in Windows 11.

Starting with Windows 11 build 26120.2415 (Dev) on Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs, you can try out the Recall (Preview) feature.

Starting with Windows 11 build 26120.2510 (Dev), Microsoft is expanding the preview of Recall to Windows Insiders on AMD and Intel-powered Copilot+ PCs.

Recall was introduced earlier this year, with the ability to enable you to quickly find and jump back into what you have seen before on your PC. You can use an explorable timeline to find the content you remember seeing before. You can also use semantic powered search and just describe how you remember something and Recall will retrieve the moment you saw it. Any photo, link, or message can be a fresh point to continue from.

To use Recall you need to opt in to saving snapshots, which are screenshots of your activity. Snapshots and the contextual information derived from them are saved and encrypted to your local hard drive. Recall does not share snapshots or associated data with Microsoft or third parties, nor is it shared between different Windows users on the same device. Windows will ask for your permission before saving snapshots. You are always in control, and you can delete snapshots, pause or turn them off at any time. Any future options for the user to share data will require fully informed explicit action by the user.

You're always in control of what's saved as a snapshot. You can disable saving snapshots, pause temporarily, filter apps and websites, and delete your snapshots at any time.

To help maintain your privacy, Recall processes your content locally on the Copilot+ PC and securely stores it only on your device. Snapshots are encrypted by Device Encryption or BitLocker, which are enabled by default on Windows 11. Recall doesn't share snapshots with other users that are signed into Windows on the same device. Microsoft can't access or view the snapshots.

Microsoft has updated Recall to detect sensitive information like credit card details, passwords, and personal identification numbers. When detected, Recall won’t save or store those snapshots.

When using Recall, the Sensitive information filter setting is enabled by default to help ensure your data's confidentiality. This feature operates directly on your device, utilizing the NPU and the Microsoft Classification Engine (MCE) - the same technology leveraged by Microsoft Purview for detecting and labeling sensitive information. This setting is enabled by default, which means that snapshots won't be saved when potentially sensitive information is detected. Most importantly, your sensitive information remains on your device at all times, regardless of whether the Sensitive information filter setting is enabled or disabled. For more information about the types of potentially sensitive information, see Reference for sensitive information filtering in Recall.

References:


Here's How:

1 Open Settings (Win+I).

2 Click/tap on Privacy & security on the left side, and click/tap on Recall & snapshots on the right side under "Windows permissions". (see screenshot below)


3 Under Filter lists, turn on (default) or off Filter sensitive information for what you want. (see screenshot below)


4 If you turned off Filter sensitive information, then click/tap on OK when prompted by Windows Security to approve. (see screenshot below)


5 You can now close Settings if you like.


That's it,
Shawn Brink