Engineer Shows How Any iPhone App Can Secretly Access Your Device Camera

[Maura]

The Next Web reports today on a Google engineer who has discovered that any iPhone app can take photos and videos of you without you knowing. The engineer, Felix Krause, has told The Next Web that although he works as a Google engineer, he carries out his security research work in his spare time, and separately from Google.

According to Krause, when you grant an app permission to use your camera, this also enables the app to access the phone’s front and back camera and record a photo or video of you whenever the app is in the foreground. It can also upload the content immediately and read your facial expressions with real-time face detection. All of the above can be done completely silently, and with no indication whatsoever that it is taking place, such as warning lights.

Krause has also made a video to show his findings in action, and has notified Apple of the problem, as well as suggesting what he thinks Apple should do to fix it. One good suggestion that he has is to make camera permissions temporary, another is to have some sort of indicator light or noise so that you know when the camera is recording you.

Source: Googler proves any iPhone app with camera permission can spy on you