News; Your Android phone "could" spy on you

[Anonymous]

Yes, smartphone cameras can be used to spy on you - if you're not careful.

A researcher claims to have written an Android app that takes photos and videos using a smartphone camera, even while the screen is turned off - a pretty handy tool for a spy or a creepy stalker.

University student Szymon Sidor claimed in a blog post and a video that his Android app works by using a tiny preview screen - just 1 pixel x 1 pixel - to keep the camera running in the background.

Now that most smartphones come with a camera (or two), and camera use is popular with apps like Instagram that encourage photo sharing, it's a little surprising it has taken so long for hackers to find sneaky ways to exploit them.

Source: http://bgr.com/2014/05/23/android-malware-secret-photo-video-recording/ 

[Anonymous]

One good use of the front facing camera is to catch a pic of the thief or finder of your phone. Some tweaks can do this for you.

Anti Thief App in iTunes.

I read a story where a person lost their iPod touch. The finder decided to keep it and took pictures not knowing they auto uploaded to the original owners iCloud account.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I'd heard of both of them, and thats when the front camera becomes useful for something other than the occasional selfie! 

But it looks like its easy for hackers to insert code into an android app to allow it to become a covert surveillance device. Sadly because of the lack of control over the Google Play Store people could unwittingly install a malicious app like this.