How to Prevent IOS Apps From Secretly Spying on Your Camera
Undoubtedly, you have given some iOS applications access to personal data, such as a photo library or a contact list. But if you gave them access to your camera, they could do a lot more than you think behind the scenes, including taking pictures of you without your knowledge. Fortunately, you can stop secret data collection without ever having to take photos again.
Security researcher Felix Krause discussed the potential privacy breach in his blog post on Apple’s iOS 11 privacy settings and found that Apple’s handling of camera permissions allowed potential abuse by apps seeking to collect more user data without their consent or knowledge.
How it works
Some applications may request access to the camera at startup to get your profile picture or to handle media that you want to send to friends. If users grant an app permission to access their device’s camera, that app can now do much more than just take a photo of you. Apps with camera access are capable of taking photos and recording videos of you while using the app, uploading photos and videos without your knowledge, or even using iOS 11’s facial recognition tools to read your facial expression while browsing, Krause said. Twitter on the bank. To make matters worse, there is no indication of the app’s nefarious activity, so you don’t get any wiser.
Krause does not claim that certain iOS apps abuse their access to your camera, but only emphasizes what apps can do if they decide to collect more than they should, without you knowing. His suggestions to fix the problem include changes to the camera resolution features as well as the indicator in iOS 11. A less likely suggestion is to add an LED indicator on the front and back of iOS devices, similar to the green LED that Apple uses. on their laptops with the status of the camera.
Use the camera app and import photos yourself
If you want to use your photo sharing apps, you can still get by without using a camera if you have the ability to upload photos from your camera roll. You will need to take a photo using your preferred camera app and then return to the restricted camera app to import it. The app will need access to your photo library, but it won’t have access to the camera, which means it won’t have the ability to spy on your face or your environment while in use. Of course, your photos may contain more information than you think, including location data. Be sure to turn off photo-to-photo linking on your smartphone if you want to keep your location safe.
Save yourself by changing a few settings
You don’t have to (yet) stick the tape on the camera to prevent apps from taking pictures of you. There is a much more convenient solution in the settings of your iOS device. You can restrict which apps can access your camera, even if you’ve given them permission to use it in the past. Open the Settings app, go to the Privacy section and select Camera. There, you’ll see each app with camera permissions, and you can turn them off as you see fit (or turn them off all for some peace of mind).