What Your OS Assistant Can See of Your Notes

Siri AI on macOS 27 answers questions about what is on your screen, and Recall on Copilot+ PCs saves snapshots of it. Both run above every app, so what they see is decided mainly in the operating system, not in your note app. Windows documents three layers there — an on switch, filters and an app-side flag; macOS documents one.

Apple's own documentation picks the example a note-taker would pick. "On your Mac, activate Siri, then ask a question about something on your screen," its support page says, and it suggests asking "Explain this from my class notes" with a diagram open in the Notes app.¹ The useful question is not whether that feature is good. It is where the decision about it lives.

A week after macOS 27 shipped, a Hacker News submission linking Apple's page on turning these features off reached 248 points and 168 comments by 22 September.² On Windows, Microsoft describes Recall as "an opt-in experience that requires end user consent to save snapshots."³ Both vendors document their switches with care — on separate pages, for separate products, and neither written for someone asking about the note that is open right now.

Everything below is as documented on 22 September 2026. Siri AI is a beta feature, Recall is labelled a preview, and nothing here was tested on a device. Where a vendor documents no control, this post says so and stops there.

The single habit: look for the switch in the OS

Check the operating system's settings, not your note app's, whenever the question is what an assistant can see. A note app's privacy settings govern the note app. Software that runs above it — an assistant that reads the screen, a feature that snapshots it — answers first to the switches of the OS it ships with.

The privacy scholar Helen Nissenbaum gave the principle a name in 2004. Contextual integrity, she wrote, "ties adequate protection for privacy to norms of specific contexts, demanding that information gathering and dissemination be appropriate to that context and obey the governing norms of distribution within it."⁴

Apply that to a note. Once it is open, it has been disclosed to the screen — and only to the screen. Whether it may flow on to an assistant is a separate decision — and it is made in a different settings panel, owned by a different vendor.

Where the file is stored does not change what the screen shows.

Neither feature reaches every Mac or every PC — the scope is set by hardware and by language. Siri AI's screen questions need macOS 27 on a Mac "with M1 or later" or a MacBook Neo, and the feature is "Available in English to start."¹ Recall needs a Copilot+ PC with, among other minimums, a "40 TOPs NPU" and "16 GB RAM."³

Siri reads when asked; Recall keeps a history

The two features carry different risks. Apple documents Siri AI reading the screen when you activate it and ask about something on it. Microsoft documents Recall saving snapshots on its own once you opt in, "periodically while content on the screen is different from the previous snapshot." One is a question; the other is a record.³

Keep them apart. One commenter in that Hacker News thread put it bluntly: "Comparing apple intelligence to a service that records your screen without consent feels extremely disingenuous."⁵ On the mechanism the commenter is right — Apple's own procedure starts with you activating Siri.¹

Asking Siri about an open note makes that note part of a request. Apple says that "In many cases, Apple Intelligence models run entirely on device so that a task can be completed without data leaving your device." It adds that "For more complex requests that require more computational capacity, Apple Intelligence can use Private Cloud Compute."⁶ The phrase "in many cases" is Apple's, and it is doing real work.

Recall works the other way round — it keeps what it sees. Microsoft says "Snapshots are locally stored and locally analyzed on your PC,"³ and the risk is accumulation — your screen, including the notes on it, becomes a searchable history. Microsoft states no fixed capture interval, and none is given here.

Different risks need different switches. That is where the two systems part ways.

The five-minute version

The five-minute version is one decision per machine: whether the feature runs at all. On a Mac, that means choosing a Siri version in Screen Time. On a Copilot+ PC, it means leaving Recall's snapshot saving off, or turning it off. Each step is documented by the vendor, reversible, and a few clicks long.

1. Mac — open the Siri restrictions. Apple's path is Apple menu > System Settings, then Screen Time, then Content & Privacy Restrictions, then Siri.⁷ Apple's on-screen page points here too: "You can choose which Siri features you can use and which content Siri can access in Screen Time settings."¹
2. Mac — pick one of three Siri versions. Apple lists Don't Allow Siri, Siri AI (Beta), and Siri Classic, the last described as the way to "Use Siri without AI-generated responses."⁷
3. Mac — or turn Siri off outright. In System Settings, click Siri, then Turn Off Siri; Apple's instruction ends "Click Turn Off Siri again to confirm."⁸
4. Mac — trim the extras if you keep Siri AI. The same Screen Time page lets you "limit other capabilities, like Writing Assistance, Math Assistance, Image Creation, and more."⁷
5. Windows — check whether Recall is saving anything. Go to Settings > Privacy & security > Recall & snapshots — the Save snapshots toggle is the switch. If you never opted in, "it will be off by default and snapshots will not be saved."⁹
6. Windows — pause or turn it off. The Recall icon in the system tray pauses saving; the toggle in the same settings page turns it off.⁹
7. Work machine — ask first. On managed devices, Microsoft says Recall is "removed by default unless IT sets the policy to enable Recall."³

Five minutes buys the big decision. The next half hour buys precision.

Expect several switches, not one. Apple's page on restricting Apple Intelligence is a table of separate rows — Siri AI, several kinds of summaries, Personalized Smart Replies and more — rather than a single control.⁸

The thirty-minute version: the layers under the switch

If you want the assistant on but your notes out of its view, you need the layers below the main switch. Windows documents filters for apps, filters for websites in supported browsers, and a flag an app can set on its own windows. For Siri AI's screen questions, Apple documents none of these.

The table below is a map of documented controls as of 22 September 2026. It is not a ranking — the two features do different things, so their controls differ in kind.

Read the right-hand column carefully. None documented is a statement about Apple's pages, not a finding that no mechanism exists.

On Windows, filter the app — or the site it runs in

Recall lets you filter apps and websites out of its snapshots. For a note app installed on the desktop, filter the app. For a note tool that runs in a browser tab, filter its website — which works in supported browsers such as Edge, Firefox, Opera and Chrome — or filter the whole browser as an app.

Microsoft's summary is one line — "You can filter both apps and websites from being saved in snapshots."³ The filters live under Settings > Privacy & security > Recall & snapshots.⁹

Website filtering depends on the browser — not on the site. "Filtering out specific websites will only work in supported browsers such as Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Opera, and Google Chrome," Microsoft's support page says.⁹ For other Chromium browsers at version 124 or later, the admin documentation says Recall "filters private browsing activity only, doesn't filter specific websites."³ The support page adds that "developers need to implement Recall activity APIs" — in context, the developers of the browser.⁹

Then comes the limit that matters most for a browser-based note tool. "Be aware that websites are filtered when they are in the foreground or are in the currently opened tab of a supported browser," Microsoft writes. It continues: "Parts of filtered websites can still appear in snapshots such as embedded content, the browser's history, or an opened tab that isn't in the foreground."⁹

The blunt option is also the complete one.

"You always have the option to filter out all browsing activity by adding an app filter for a browser."⁹

Two settings are easy to overread. Sensitive information filtering is on by default, and it "helps reduce passwords, national ID numbers, and credit card numbers from being stored in Recall"⁹ — a filter for identifiers, not for the contents of your notes. And on Enterprise and Education editions, an administrator can cap retention at 30, 60, 90 or 180 days; Microsoft says that setting "applies only to Enterprise and Education editions of Windows."³

On a Mac, App Access governs suggestions, not sight

On a Mac, Apple does not describe the per-app list under Siri > App Access as a screen filter. It describes its two toggles as controls for learning and suggestions. The control Apple points to for "which content Siri can access" is Screen Time, and that works on Siri's version and capabilities, not on individual apps.

Apple's page on App Access is specific about its purpose. "When you give Siri access to an app, Siri can find information and provide suggestions for what you might want to do next, even before you ask."¹⁰ It adds: "Suggestions are on by default, but you can customize the apps Siri has access to at any time."¹⁰

The two per-app toggles are named "Learn from this application" and "Show Siri Suggestions in application."¹⁰ Switching both off for a note app is reasonable if you do not want Siri learning from how you use it. It is still a different switch from the one this post is about.

For screen questions, the documented controls are the ones in the five-minute version: which Siri you allow, and which capabilities you limit.⁷ Apple documents no per-app or per-website exclusion for Siri AI's questions about your screen.

That may change — the feature is in beta, and Apple's pages carry no dates.

The flag an app can set, and what it does not promise

Windows lets a desktop app mark its own windows so they stay out of Recall and other captures. Microsoft's developer reference is explicit that this flag guarantees nothing absolute, and, as documented, a page in a browser tab cannot set it. Apple's closest equivalent is documented as a legacy constant macOS "no longer uses."

The flag is WDA_EXCLUDEFROMCAPTURE. Microsoft's Recall documentation says that "By setting the flag WDA_EXCLUDEFROMCAPTURE, the window content won't show up in Recall or any other screenshot application."³ The API reference describes the effect plainly: "The window is displayed only on a monitor. Everywhere else, the window does not appear at all."¹¹ It has been supported since Windows 10 version 2004.¹¹

The two Microsoft pages frame it differently — and the difference matters. The Recall page calls it a "DRM flag."³ The API reference says that "unlike a security feature or an implementation of Digital Rights Management (DRM), there is no guarantee that using SetWindowDisplayAffinity and GetWindowDisplayAffinity … will strictly protect windowed content, for example where someone takes a photograph of the screen."¹¹ The second description is the one to plan around.

It is also the app's decision, not yours. The API is listed for "desktop apps only," and "The window must belong to the current process."¹¹ A note tool running as a page in a browser tab does not own a window in that sense — so for web-based notes, the Recall filters above are the reader's controls.

Signal is one app that sets it. "This setting is automatically enabled by default in Signal Desktop on Windows 11," the company announced in May 2025. Its stated reason: "Apps like Signal have essentially no control over what content Recall is able to capture."¹³ It also named the cost — "some accessibility software (such as screen readers or magnification tools for people who are visually impaired) may not function correctly otherwise."¹³

On a Mac, Apple's developer documentation calls the old window-sharing constant "A legacy constant that macOS no longer uses," and warns: "Don’t use this value to hide or omit content from being captured."¹²

Apple documents no replacement a note app could set against Siri AI.

How to check that the switch took

Each system gives you one way to see a switch working. On Windows, the Recall icon in the system tray shows a filter badge when you are on a filtered app or site. On a Mac, the Apple Intelligence Report lists requests sent to Private Cloud Compute — a partial record, not a log of everything Siri saw.

On Windows, Microsoft's instruction is exact: "You can verify that the filter is active by checking whether the Recall icon in the system tray has a filter badge on top of it when you are on a filtered app or website, or when you have a private browsing window open."⁹ Open your note tool, bring it to the foreground — then look at the tray.

No badge, no filter.

Repeat the check in every browser you open notes in. Website filtering depends on the browser, and Chromium browsers outside Microsoft's list filter private browsing only.³

On a Mac, go to System Settings > Privacy & Security and click Apple Intelligence Report. Apple's instruction is to "choose a report duration for the last 15 minutes (default) or last 7 days," and the export arrives as a file named Apple_Intelligence_Report.json.⁶

Know what that report covers. Apple describes it as a report of requests your Mac has sent to Private Cloud Compute — not as a record of requests handled on the device.⁶ An empty report does not show that Siri never read your screen. For the cloud side, Apple's stated position is that "The data being processed in Private Cloud Compute is not stored or made accessible to Apple."⁶ That is Apple's claim, and it is attributed here as such.

Common mistakes

Most mistakes come from carrying one system's model into the other, or from trusting a switch without checking it. Five are worth naming, because each leaves a note on screen while its owner believes it is hidden. The vendors' own documentation already warns against every one of them.

• Treating App Access as a screen filter. Apple documents it as a control over learning and suggestions¹⁰ — the documented screen control is Screen Time.⁷
• Filtering the site in an unsupported browser. Chromium browsers not on Microsoft's list filter private browsing only.³
• Assuming a filtered site is invisible everywhere. Background tabs, history and embedded content can still appear.⁹
• Reading the sensitive-information filter as a notes filter. It targets passwords, ID numbers and card numbers, and Microsoft's verb is "helps reduce."⁹
• Reading an empty Apple Intelligence Report as proof. Apple documents it as a report of Private Cloud Compute requests only.⁶

A switch you have not verified is a hope.

What keeping notes local does and does not change

Keeping notes local-first decides where the file lives and who holds a copy. It does not decide what the screen shows once the note is open. An assistant reading the screen reads what is displayed, wherever the file is stored — so the OS switches above apply to local notes exactly as they apply to cloud ones.

That is a question of layers — inside the app, or above it. Third-party code running inside a note app inherits the app's privileges — the subject of why your note app's plugins are an attack surface. Software running above the app sees what the app displays.

The switches differ because the layers do.

If the AI reading your notes is one you started yourself, the audit is different again: ask it which files it actually read, and keep the log.

And if you want AI over your notes at all, choose it deliberately rather than inheriting it from the OS. There are ways to chat with your notes without uploading them.

Frequently asked questions

The first two questions are a Hacker News title and a Hacker News comment, both posted within a week of the macOS 27 and iOS 27 release, quoted as written. The third is the query this post exists to answer; the rest are the follow-ups the vendor documentation raises. Each answer points back to the vendor's own page rather than to anything tested here.

"Is it impossible to disable Siri on macOS 27?"

No — not according to Apple's documentation. System Settings > Siri > Turn Off Siri, confirmed with a second click, switches it off.⁸ Screen Time also offers "Don’t Allow Siri," Siri AI (Beta), and Siri Classic.⁷ The question was an Ask HN title on 21 September 2026.¹⁴ One commenter there pointed to the same Screen Time setting as the way to switch Siri to "Siri Classic."¹⁵

"What was wrong with just letting people turn it all off?"

That was a Hacker News reply in the thread "Tell HN: iOS 27 does not allow Apple Intelligence to be disabled."¹⁶ On the Mac, Apple documents Turn Off Siri as one step, but its restriction page is a table of separate rows, one per feature.⁸ There is no single documented master switch for everything.

Can Apple Intelligence or Windows Recall see my notes?

Yes — under documented conditions. Siri AI reads what is on your screen when you activate it and ask.¹ Recall saves snapshots once you opt in, unless the app, site or browser is filtered.³ Neither is switched on or off from your note app. The switches are in the operating system.

Does Recall filter private browsing?

Yes — in supported browsers. Microsoft lists Edge, Firefox, Opera and Chrome as filtering specified websites and private browsing activity. Other Chromium-based browsers at version 124 or later filter "private browsing activity only."³ Microsoft adds that filtering does not stop websites or ISPs from knowing a site was visited.⁹

Can a note app in a browser hide itself from Recall?

Not on its own — as documented, the window flag that keeps content out of Recall is for "desktop apps only," and the window "must belong to the current process."¹¹ A page in a tab does not own the browser's window. Filter the site in a supported browser, or filter the browser as an app.⁹

Does the Apple Intelligence Report show everything Siri saw?

No. Apple describes it as a report of requests your Mac has sent to Private Cloud Compute, with a default window of 15 minutes or an optional 7 days.⁶ Apple does not describe it as covering requests handled on the device. Treat it as a view of the cloud side only.

Does this apply to iPhone?

This post covers the Mac and Windows only. A Hacker News post titled "Tell HN: iOS 27 does not allow Apple Intelligence to be disabled" drew 76 points.¹⁷ iOS documentation was not checked for this piece. Apple also notes that Siri AI will not initially be available in the EU on iOS, iPadOS and watchOS.¹

The switch lives where the software sits

What your OS assistant can see of your notes is decided mainly by the operating system, because the assistant runs above your note app and sees what it shows. Windows documents filters for apps and sites and a flag that apps can set. macOS documents which Siri you allow. Check the switch, then check that it took.

Your note app decides where the file lives. The operating system decides who else is looking at the screen.

The part a note app can decide is where the file lives, and mnmnote.com keeps it as open Markdown on your own device.