On May 20, 2024, Microsoft announced Recall, a shiny new feature that was supposed to bring "photographic memory" to your shiny new Copilot+ PC with Snapdragon X processors. Later on, Microsoft shipped Recall to Release Preview Insiders (sort of), which led to security experts dissecting it using some hacks and uncovering quite shocking stuff.
Despite promising privacy, things escalated quickly and turned into a true PR nightmare for Microsoft.
But where Microsoft fails, third-party developers thrive. There are already third-party alternatives to Recall that let you try the idea on your existing hardware. OpenRecall is one such option, which promises the same while being open-source and free for everyone.
Like Recall, OpenRecall stores everything you do with your computer by taking snapshots (glorified screenshots with extra bits of data), which are then processed, OCRed, and structured for quick search. You can scroll stored snapshots and get back to any captured moment.
OpenRecall captures your digital history through regularly taken snapshots, which are essentially screenshots. The text and images within these screenshots are analyzed and made searchable, allowing you to quickly find specific information by typing relevant keywords into OpenRecall. You can also manually scroll back through your history to revisit past activities.
What makes OpenRecall stand out is that it is fully open-source and cross-platform so that you can use it on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Also, it does not require new hardware and works on existing computers without fancy neural processing units (NPUs).
Developers also claim that the project is privacy-focused, but this is where you should start questioning things. Although data is stored and processed locally, there is no option (yet) to password-protect and encrypt it. Therefore, you should accept the potential risks of storing everything you do on your computer using tools made by third-party developers (even though open-source). In a nutshell, the same concerns and questions that customers ask Microsoft about Recall still apply to OpenRecall.
If you are curious to give OpenRecall a try, head to its GitHub repository and check it out.
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