Are your phone camera and microphone
spying on you?
Here is what the former FBI director
James Comey said when he was asked back in September 2016 if he covered his
laptop’s webcam with tape.
“Heck yeah, heck yeah. Also, I get
mocked for a lot of things, and I am much mocked for that, but I hope people
lock their cars … lock your doors at night. I have an alarm system, if you have
an alarm system you should use it, I use mine.”
If he does, we all should.
Who could be accessing your camera
and microphone?
Apps like WhatsApp, Facebook,
Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Viber
Felix Krause described in 2017 that
when a user grants an app access to their camera and microphone, the app could
do the following:
·
Access both the
front and the back camera.
·
Record you at
any time the app is in the foreground.
·
Take pictures
and videos without telling you.
·
Upload the
pictures and videos without telling you.
·
Upload the
pictures/videos it takes immediately.
·
Run real-time
face recognition to detect facial features or expressions.
·
Livestream the
camera on to the internet.
·
Detect if the
user is on their phone alone, or watching together with a second person.
·
Upload random
frames of the video stream to your web service and run a proper face
recognition software which can find existing photos of you on the internet and
create a 3D model based on your face.
For instance, here’s a Find my Phone
application which a documentary maker installed on a phone, then let someone
steal it. After the person stole it, the original owner spied on every moment
of the thief’s life through the phone’s camera and microphone.
The documentary tracks every move of
this person, from brushing their teeth to going to work. To grabbing a bite to
eat with their co-worker to intimate moments with a loved one. This is the
power of apps that have access to your camera and microphone.
The government
·
Edward Snowden
revealed an NSA program called Optic Nerves. The operation was a bulk
surveillance program under which they captured webcam images every five minutes
from Yahoo users’ video chats and then stored them for future use. It is
estimated that between 3% and 11% of the images captured contained “undesirable
nudity”.
·
Government
security agencies like the NSA can also have access to your devices through
in-built backdoors. This means that these security agencies can tune in to your
phone calls, read your messages, capture pictures of you, stream videos of you,
read your emails, steal your files … at any moment they please.
Hackers
Hackers can also gain access to your
device with extraordinary ease via apps, PDF files, multimedia messages and
even emojis.
An application called Metasploit on
the ethical hacking platform Kali uses an Adobe Reader 9 (which over 60% of
users still use) exploit to open a listener (rootkit) on the user’s computer.
You alter the PDF with the program, send the user the malicious file, they open
it, and hey presto – you have total control over their device remotely.
Once a user opens this PDF file, the
hacker can then:
·
Install
whatever software/app they like on the user’s device.
·
Use a keylogger
to grab all of their passwords.
·
Steal all
documents from the device.
·
Take pictures
and stream videos from their camera.
·
Capture past or
live audio from the microphone.
·
Upload
incriminating images/documents to their PC, and notify the police.
And, if it’s not enough that your
phone is tracking you – surveillance cameras in shops and streets are tracking
you, too
You might even be on this website,
InSeCam, which allows ordinary people online to watch surveillance cameras free
of charge. It even allows you to search cameras by location, city, time zone,
device manufacturer, and specify whether you want to see a kitchen, bar,
restaurant or bedroom.
How would we feel if someone were
standing outside our bedroom window, staring in through the curtains. The most
common response would be to call the police. However, what do we do when
everyone is being monitored? We shake our head, and try to forget it’s
happening. Try to go on with our lives and ignore the constant nag that we’re
being watched.
If this article achieves anything, I
hope it teaches you digital mindfulness. This is the act of being careful on
the internet and taking precautionary measures to save yourself pain and
potential ruin in the future, all because you didn’t install an antivirus or
put a little bit of tape over your camera.
A good first step to counteracting
these issues is study what permissions an app asks for. Does an app like
LinkedIn really require camera access? Does an app like Twitter really require
microphone access? Before you download an app, check out the reviews and search
for any negative information about it to prevent yourself future harm.
Always make sure to cover your
webcam with tape, and plug out your microphones when you’re done using them.
You never know who’s watching, or what’s happening in the background on your
device. It’s only paranoia until it’s too late.
Dylan
Curran is a data consultant and web developer who does extensive research into
spreading technical awareness and improving digital etiquette
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