Alerting Users that Applications are Using Cameras, Microphones, Etc.
Interesting research: “What You See is What They Get: Protecting users from unwanted use of microphones, cameras, and other sensors,” by Jon Howell and Stuart Schechter.
Abstract: Sensors such as cameras and microphones collect privacy-sensitive data streams without the user’s explicit action. Conventional sensor access policies either hassle users to grant applications access to sensors or grant with no approval at all. Once access is granted, an application may collect sensor data even after the application’s interface suggests that the sensor is no longer being accessed.
We introduce the sensor-access widget, a graphical user interface element that resides within an application’s display. The widget provides an animated representation of the personal data being collected by its corresponding sensor, calling attention to the application’s attempt to collect the data. The widget indicates whether the sensor data is currently allowed to flow to the application. The widget also acts as a control point through which the user can configure the sensor and grant or deny the application access. By building perpetual disclosure of sensor data collection into the platform, sensor-access widgets enable new access-control policies that relax the tension between the user’s privacy needs and applications’ ease of access.
Apple seems to be taking some steps in this direction with the location sensor disclosure in iPhone 4.0 OS.
Clive Robinson • May 24, 2010 7:51 AM
Hmm,
Two quotes from above,
1, “We introduce the sensor-access widget,”
2, “Conventional sensor access policies either hassle users to grant applications access to sensors or grant with no approval at all.”
What makes them think that anybody in 2 who would just take privileges (because they can) is going to bother registering with their widget (1).
It needs some fairly fundamental plumbing to stop this sort of abuse and it’s the sort of thing MS should do but we know the chance of them doing that is somewhere between zero and 1/infinity.