In September 2024, Dutch telecom provider KPN organized a series of meetings in cooperation with Microsoft to promote the use of Microsoft Copilot under the slogan “Discover secure home working with Microsoft Copilot.”

Copilot is a new AI tool that is part of Windows 11. Copilot records every keystroke and that every few seconds a screen capture. Keystrokes can be captured on any PC, but an AI chip can now capture and analyze screen captures. Such chips are in the new generation of computers: Copilot+ PCs.

The data thus collected are stored for 3 months in a specially reserved 50 Gb space on the device. However, the corresponding folder is nowhere to be found. Anyone with access to the folder can retrieve everything you did on your computer for 3 months. It’s a form of client-side scanning, something Apple’s iOS has long been able to do. An important question is who benefits from the recall feature? Is it the users? Or rather the investigative agencies? Or perhaps authoritarian world leaders? Or is it a smart move by Microsoft to catch up with Google? After all, Google already knows an awful lot about its users; for Microsoft, closely tracking the comings and goings of users was never a revenue model. But maybe it will become one after all? There is a danger that the log files will eventually be shared with Microsoft or that these log files will be hacked or stolen by malicious parties.

So pay attention!