Are you a proud iPhone owner? If yes, this could freak you up. Trust me!
Your iPhone has a serious privacy concern that allows iOS app developers to take your photographs and record your live video using both front and back camera—all without any notification or your consent.
This alarming privacy concern in Apple’s mobile operating system was highlighted by an Austrian developer and Google engineer, Felix Krause, who detailed the issue in his blog post published Wednesday.
The issue, Krause noted, is in the way Apple’s software handles camera access.
Apparently, there is a legitimate reason for many apps, such as Facebook, WhatsApp, and Snapchat, to request access to your camera, in an effort to take a photo within the app.
So, this permissions system is not a bug or a flaw instead it is a feature, and it works exactly in the way Apple has designed it, but Krause said any malicious app could take advantage of this feature to silently record users activities.
iPhone Apps Can Silently Turn On Cameras at Any Time
Krause explained that that granting camera permission could enable iOS app developers to access:
- both the front and the back camera of your device,
- photograph and record you at any time the app is in the foreground,
- upload the recorded and captured content immediately, and
- run real-time face detection to read your facial expressions