A team of researchers at Newcastle University in the UK has published a paper highlighting some troubling findings linking on-board sensors with privacy..
A team of researchers at Newcastle University in the UK has published a paper highlighting some troubling findings linking on-board sensors with privacy issues. Using data collected by mobile device’s hardware tracking systems, the team was able to crack four digit PINs with 70-percent accuracy on the first try, with 100-percent accuracy by try number five.
While some applications alert users to specific on-board monitoring, it’s certainly not universal – nor, for that matter, is any insight into how often that information is being accessed.
“Having access to these sensors, either via the native apps, which you can install on your phone or a web application – it’s not like they always ask permission,” the paper’s lead researcher Dr. Maryam Mehrnezhad told TechCrunch. “So, these sensors, which are related to your identity, like your microphone, camera or GPS, but for a lot of these new sensors, none of them ask for permission.
