Brave and AdGuard block Windows 11's divisive Recall feature - is this the start of a trend?

The Brave web browser, which is a privacy-focused affair, just announced that it's blocked Microsoft's Recall feature, and AdGuard has as well - leaving us wondering if this is going to be a move other software developers follow.

The Verge reports that Brave announced the decision in a blog post, saying:

"Given Brave's focus on privacy-maximizing defaults and what is at stake here (your entire browsing history), we have proactively disabled Recall for all Brave tabs."

• Read more: Windows 11's Recall feature isn't supposed to screenshot your credit card details - but it does

In Brave version 1.81 on Windows, there's a new slider to 'Block Microsoft Recall' which prevents the feature from taking snapshots (screenshots) of Brave browser windows. The key part here is that this will be on by default - though you can, of course, turn it off, so Recall can screenshot Brave if you prefer that way of working.

Previously, messaging app Signal blocked Recall in the same vein, and AdGuard is also introducing a toggle in its latest version (v7.21 in Windows) - this is part of its tracking protection suite of features. It's not on by default, mind, you must choose to turn on this functionality.

It's worth clarifying that none of this matters if you don't turn on Recall in the first place, and it's off by default on Windows 11 (and only present on Copilot+ PCs, too). Still, there are those who may not trust Recall even when it's switched off.

The more paranoid may foresee a scenario where maybe a bug could cause snapshots to be taken somehow - strange things have happened in Windows 11 in the recent past, after all (like the OS being displayed in a mix of two different languages thanks to a weird glitch). Or there's the prospect of a malicious party accessing your PC and turning on Recall without your knowledge, maybe.

As AdGuard points out in its blog:

"PINs are easy to crack, and filters may fail to detect sensitive content. Leaving backdoors wide open and hoping everything works as intended - or that Microsoft will always act in good faith - just isn't a solid privacy strategy."

So, might countering fears along these lines by making it impossible for Recall to peek into an app become a popular move among other software makers? It's certainly feasible, and indeed we expect more developers to be treading this same path soon enough - particularly those with apps that are privacy-related in some way.