Warning: iPhone Apps Can Secretly Turn On Your Camera And Take Pictures At ANY TIME
A new warning has been issued to iPhone users. Apps downloaded to the smartphones can turn on the phone’s camera and take pictures at any time, and it’s doing it secretly.
Felix Krause, an Austrian developer who works for Google, built an app that was able to take pictures of its user every second and upload them, without the app or the phone ever notifying the user. He called it a “privacy loophole that can be abused by iOS apps.” When an app wants to access the camera, for example, to scan a credit card or take a profile picture during the set-up process, the iPhone user must give the app permission to access the camera, in the same way that apps must ask to access the camera roll, location, and contact information and to send notifications. Once allowed, it has to be turned off via the settings menu. But most don’t do that.
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Apple has now been urged to change the way in which iPhone apps are granted access to the phone’s camera after Krause boldly demonstrated how the apps can secretly record photos and videos without the user knowing. Krause said that once an app has been granted initial access, it can take photos and videos whenever it is opened up. Unlike on Mac computers, which have a small green light next to the camera when it is being used, there is no indication that an app is recording videos or taking photos, or when it sends them elsewhere.
The system works similarly with Android phones, but Krause’s apps were made specifically for iPhones. Google has recently deleted several apps that surreptitiously recorded users and masqueraded as legitimate apps.
The app permissions are indefinite too. They apply to both the front and back camera, as well a video. Allowing camera permissions can
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