i will give you a likely scenario laptop user they do not lock their computer (this is disturbingly common these days) and have no auto lock configured recall is enabled by default (and they most likely do not know about it)
Sure, but at that point you'll have access to the person's email, messaging accounts, likely work material, personal files and everything else the owner himself had access to. Not much to defend a computer without a password like that with physical access.
The issue might be quite a bit bigger. Some programs (er ex. banking sites) have their local executables encrypted but Recall effectively circumvents it. Even more, it gives context to actions, and even access to otherwise encrypted files by effectively OCRing what's on screen. From the initial reports I don't have much confidence they'll do it right off the bat and we may see big consequences because of that
Don't forget this will also have access to information that might otherwise not be saved locally, as an example private cloud documents, chats or even RDP/SSH sessions
I really dont get how MS gets away with this stuff when companies can be so secretive. I work in pharma and we had to come up with a code system to refer to our clients cause some of them didnt like that we had their names on binders and a competitor might see that during an audit. But we'll keep using windows even if its phoning home information and might be recording your whole desktop somewhere
Like imagine how much more damage that does if someone stole you laptop and had your log in. They wouldnt have to look for anything. They could just ask copilot