Session Recording: Recovering Masked Text Input After Deletion

Session Recording Feature

Microsoft Clarity’s Session Recording captures mouse movements, clicks, scrolls, and page views. Text input events are masked to protect privacy, replacing typed characters with asterisks or blanks in the recorded timeline.

Data Storage and Retention

Recordings are stored in Azure Blob Storage, where replication and durability are managed automatically. The retention period is configurable, and recordings can be deleted only by the account owner. No dedicated backup or restoration workflow exists beyond this retention policy.

Verification Challenge

Verifying recovered sessions is limited by the masking of input. While the event sequence is preserved, the raw text is not exposed through the UI or API, making it difficult to confirm that the original user interaction was captured accurately.

Unresolved Decision

Will developers ever be able to access unmasked text input for debugging or analytics purposes?

Specific questions:

• Is there a method to retrieve unmasked text input from Clarity session recordings stored in Azure Blob Storage?
• Can a session be restored after deletion—before the retention period expires—and does the restored data contain the original text?
• What verification steps can confirm that recovered sessions include the exact text originally entered by the user?