One after another the tech giants fail to keep the customer’s privacy safe and keep giving the hint on how delicate this matter is. The biggest and most reliable of the tech giants are under news for this privacy concern. Some days back Facebook was under news for accessing the camera on ios system without the user’s permission. Now a similar case arises with an Android camera app that was not only opening the camera but also clicking pictures and videos. A security researcher at Checkmarx reported this to Google.
The bugs found by the researcher were not just threatening the privacy of users it was completely destroying it. The camera app was capable of using a camera to record videos and click pictures while the phone was unlocked or even when it was locked. The bug or issue related to this privacy breach seems to be a permission bypass. The app bypasses the permission protocol and accesses the camera even without getting permission to do so. This is not all that the researcher found while testing the devices as he tested Google Pixel 2 XL and Pixel 3. Some more of the issues related to permission bypass was also found by the researcher while the camera app is highlighted.
Usually, users are suggested to use apps that are trusted and are developed by reliable companies or developers but it seems like that won’t work as well. The stock camera by Google is the app used by the majority of Android users and that makes them vulnerable to such privacy breaches. Android devices have always been vulnerable to external malware and this was something least expected to leave such a loophole.