Source: www.securityweek.com – Author: Ryan Naraine
Signal on Friday shipped a new feature that automatically blocks all screenshots of its chat window, positioning it as a privacy shield aimed at Microsoft’s controversial Windows Recall technology that logs on-screen activity every few seconds for AI search.
The new Signal feature sets a “screen security” flag that blocks the Windows OS from capturing screenshots of Signal chats. If a user or the Recall utility tries, the result is a blank frame. Signal said the screenshot-blocker is on by default for every Windows 11 user; toggling it off requires digging into preferences and dismissing a bright warning.
“Although Microsoft made several adjustments over the past twelve months in response to critical feedback, the revamped version of Recall still places any content that’s displayed within privacy-preserving apps like Signal at risk,” according to a note from the makers of the encrypted messaging app.
“As a result, we are enabling an extra layer of protection by default on Windows 11 in order to help maintain the security of Signal Desktop on that platform even though it introduces some usability trade-offs. Microsoft has simply given us no other option,” Signal developer Joshua Lund said.
The controversial Windows Recall has had a topsy-turvy existence since it was heavily promoted by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella as the hero-feature in the company’s fleet of AI-powered computers.
The company delayed the release of the technology to quell concerns and address security and privacy risks, eventually overhauling the security architecture with proof-of-presence encryption, anti-tampering and DLP checks, and screenshot data managed in secure enclaves outside the main operating system.
Now, as Microsoft readies for another rollout attempt, Signal warns that the software maker has not included granular settings for app developers, describing that as “a glaring omission that limits our choices.”
“We hope that the AI teams building systems like Recall will think through these implications more carefully in the future. Apps like Signal shouldn’t have to implement “one weird trick” in order to maintain the privacy and integrity of their services without proper developer tools,” Lund argued.
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Signal cautions that integration of AI agents with “pervasive permissions, questionable security hygiene, and an insatiable hunger for data” has the potential to “break the blood-brain barrier between applications and operating systems.”
“This poses a significant threat to Signal, and to every privacy-preserving application in general,” Signal’s Lund declared.
“Private messaging apps like Signal deserve to be treated with at least the same level of caution that’s afforded to a web browser’s private or incognito browsing window — which Microsoft has already excluded from Recall by default,” Lund noted.
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Original Post URL: https://www.securityweek.com/signal-adds-screenshot-blocker-to-thwart-windows-recall/
Category & Tags: Data Protection,Privacy & Compliance,Microsoft,privacy,Signal,Windows AI PC,Windows Recall – Data Protection,Privacy & Compliance,Microsoft,privacy,Signal,Windows AI PC,Windows Recall
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