Apple sneaks Microsoft Windows Recall-like feature into the iPhone 16

When Microsoft announced its Windows Recall feature that was headed to the new Copilot+ PCs the feature was met with heavy criticism from users as it was essentially viewed as an invasion of privacy.

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Here's how Recall works in a nutshell. Microsoft's latest AI feature in Windows 11 indiscriminately and continuously takes screenshots of a user's desktop to create a searchable index that has categorized all of the content the AI has seen on screen. Notably, the tool doesn't blur out any sensitive information a user may be looking at, such as banking information, private images, passwords, medical information, etc. Once users discovered this, the feature received extreme criticism as it raised concerns that Recall users would have their sensitive data stored on Microsoft servers.

Microsoft attempted to reassure users that all screenshots captured by Recall would be stored locally and wouldn't be sent to Microsoft servers. However, that prompted security concerns for users, as bad actors who gained access to a PC would simply need to navigate to the directory of this Recall feature and copy all of the screenshots to steal all of a user's personal information. How does this relate to Apple's new suite of AI features under Apple Intelligence?

During the Glowtime presentation, where the company unveiled the new iPhone 16 lineup, Apple skimmed over a new feature coming to the latest version of iOS called "semantic search". Apple's senior vice-president of worldwide marketing, Greg Jozwiak, said, "If you need to quickly find an important detail but can't remember where it was shared, Siri will use your personal semantic index to quickly locate the information you're looking for."

• Read more: Apple openly mocks Microsoft's controversial Windows Recall feature

Unfortunately, that was all that was said about the feature, but judging by the demonstration, users will be able to prompt Siri with a request to locate a piece of information on the device, and through the power of Apple Intelligence, Siri will locate that piece of information and showcase it to the user. This feature sounds essentially the same as Windows Recall, which users access via Microsoft's Copilot AI.

Unlike Microsoft, which attempted to reassure its users Recall's captured information was stored on the device after its users called it out, Apple has made a big deal out of letting its users know that any information it captures will be stored on the device and not in an Apple cloud. However, to Redmond's defense, Apple seems to be rolling out essentially the same feature, but without the public's scrutiny surrounding the potentially invasive nature of the feature, which Recall is undoubtedly experiencing.

It simply appears that Apple has gained more trust with its users through its careful marketing than Microsoft. Can you even uninstall Apple's new feature? User's won't be able to get rid of Recall.

• Read more: Microsoft confirms that you can't uninstall its controversial Windows Recall AI feature