Techniques for recalling details regarding past events include identifying information from encountered remote devices, and storing the received identifying information in a proximity log database. An entry (e.g., a phonebook or calendar entry) stored by a personal information management application is accessed, and a query is generated from parameters provided by a personal information management application. Based on this query, the method searches the proximity log database; and receives a result from the proximity log database as a response to the query. The result identifies a past remote device encounter. Heuristics may be employed to infer data from the result.