Face unlock on Android phones is kind of creepy

[pmbug]

BREAKING: Claude Code found 14,219 photos of my face on my Android that I never took. Phone was secretly taking them almost every time I picked it up. Even when I was just lying in bed. Even at home.

Not screenshots. Real frames from the front camera. On the train. In the car. At home. When I just grabbed it to check the time.

They were just sitting in a system cache. Timestamps and GPS on them. Nothing in Gallery. Nothing in Recently Deleted.

Plugged the phone into my laptop, made a full backup, told Claude Code to look for any front-camera files that weren’t in my photos. It pulled /data/system/users/0/faceunlock/cache and another folder inside Google Play Services. Over 14 thousand files. Normal ones and infrared from Face Unlock. Every single one had time and location.

Started scrolling. Almost everything from the last 15 months. Then I saw a file created 2 seconds ago. I was still looking at the folder. Phone kept taking photos while I was reading this.

Google and the phone makers say Face Unlock turns everything into a mathematical model and deletes the image right away. On this phone the raw frames were just sitting there. Some of the processes writing to that folder were from system diagnostics. Couple of old apps that still had camera permission could also get in.

Turned off diagnostics, revoked camera access from everything that doesn’t need it, cleared the cache. But how many of these frames already went somewhere else, I don’t know.

If you want to check yours, plug it in, make a full backup or use ADB, and ask Claude to look for front-camera files outside your Gallery. Path above is where mine were.

I don't use any biometric unlocks. I use passwords (number in Android's case). Biometrics are more convenient, but more problematic both in terms of potential privacy breaches, but also they are also legally different from passwords and biometrics can be compelled under the law but passwords cannot.

 

[nickndfl]

I used to sit naked on the Xerox in my office and make copies. It's kind of the same thing?

 

[Casey Jones]

Keep the phone in a case.

We KNOW those cursed things are a GIANT privacy leak...never mind security. This is the fundamental difference between a device and a computer: A computer (other than the Fruit Brand) gives you some control. You can put a firewall in and activate it. You can cut internet connections. You can disable Bluetooth and wi-fi service. You can even wipe it and reload with a fresh copy of the OS.

A phone/tablet allows none of that. What is going on is all hidden from you. You cannot stop connecting to the Mothership, or getting pop-ups selling garbage or filling your brain with idiocy.

And you can't control the camera or microphone.

Just know this, and live like it. Get a case or sleeve for it - I use a NiteIze case, both cameras are covered - and keep the phone in a noisy place. I use the top of my Chinese refrigerator.

AND I leave it at home. The damn thing is a PHONE. There is voicemail attached to the account. And most calls to me are bots looking to either sell me garbage or get voice or biometric samples.

We can't have it both ways...playing games on the bus with a device we keep in our pocket; and NOT having it suck up every last bit of data it can.

 

[Viking]

I used to sit naked on the Xerox in my office and make copies. It's kind of the same thing?

"used to"? Suure.

 

[Voodoo]

Guess that little black tape isn't so crazy after all ehh..,. 10% down today isn't enough

 

[Casey Jones]

Guess that little black tape isn't so crazy after all ehh..,. 10% down today isn't enough

One little problem with that.

Time to time, you NEED (or really would like) to take a picture with the thing. I'll do that when price-comparing, or when looking at an expensive item, noting the spec sheet or the serial number, say, of a used bike or something. Or take a pic of a jackwagon who decided he had to be a parking-place buddy...I always park on the far end of any lot, lots of empty spaces closer, but some NPCs are just COMPELLED to park next to me, as close as possible.

Not that it would do any good, in our fake-and-ghey kourts, but I'll have the clown's plate and make-model.

But even if you pull that electrical tape off...the adhesive will stick, probably to the covering for the lens, also...

 

[Viking]

They make phone cases that have sliding covers for cameras.

 

[Joe King]

Yea, phones take your pic every few seconds.

Have done so for a long time.

I've heard it's so the phone knows when it's being looked at, and if it's not being looked at, it turns the display off in order to save charge.
.....but you just have to trust that no one is doing anything with those pics.

As op said, it's kinda creepy.

If you are worried about tape residue, put a small piece of paper over the lense first, then put a slightly bigger piece of tape over that.
.....but get a phone case with a sliding cover for the lens on the back.

That's what mine has, but it doesn't have a front cover so I use a small piece of tape with a smaller piece of paper under that that barely covers the lens.

Same applies to a lap top pc.

One other thing you can do if you are lucky enough to have an actual headphone jack, is to cut the connector off an old cheap wired earbuds and leave it plugged in when you don't want your phone listening to you.

Having something plugged in turns off the phones speaker and mic.

I realize a lotta phones don't have headphone jacks anymore, but if yours does, use it.

 

[Casey Jones]

One other thing you can do if you are lucky enough to have an actual headphone jack, is to cut the connector off an old cheap wired earbuds and leave it plugged in when you don't want your phone listening to you.

Good thinking.

I have a 3yo Motorola, and yes it has the headphone. Now I just have to find an old plug to cut off...all my old headphones went in the recycle pile years ago.

 

[Joe King]

Good thinking.

I have a 3yo Motorola, and yes it has the headphone. Now I just have to find an old plug to cut off...all my old headphones went in the recycle pile years ago.

Just make sure that it's one that has a mic on the cord.

That way you can be sure, as that kind has four separate pieces in the plug. Ie: that way it will think there is a mic attached. I'm not certain that audio-only jack will disable the built-in mic on the phone.

I might try it later to see if a three piece ear bud plug will disable the mic. I have both kinds.


Edited to add: should be able find some cheap ones at the dollar store. Walmart has some cheap ones too.

 

[Joe King]

I just checked, and yes, you will need a wired ear bud with a mic built in to the wire in order to disable the mic. The ones that are audio only, didn't disable the mic on my phone.
.....and I have a Motorola too.

 

[Casey Jones]

Just make sure that it's one that has a mic on the cord.

That way you can be sure, as that kind has four separate pieces in the plug. Ie: that way it will think there is a mic attached. I'm not certain that audio-only jack will disable the built-in mic on the phone.

I might try it later to see if a three piece ear bud plug will disable the mic. I have both kinds.


Edited to add: should be able find some cheap ones at the dollar store. Walmart has some cheap ones too.

Hmmm.

If you cut the cord off, the algo in the firmware will think the same as if the plug doesn't have a third wire circuit. And if you leave the mic ON the cord, of course, it has an input.

I don't know. Going through my pile of old corded earpieces...yes, I save crap like that...I found a cheap double-prong patch cord and a Sony hangared ear player that I gave up on, it needed more wattage than any of my players or other gizmos, could generate. Could barely hear out the ears.

Those were the two devices that fit into the jack plug. Trouble is, the jack hole is recessed, and most cords have a shoulder that prevents them from going in all the way. I guess that's to sell the girls a special one that's 10x the price of others.

I dunno. Except that when plugged in, it does de-activate the speaker, now. So it's doing SOMETHING.

I'm still practicing the basic precaution - keep the damn phone isolated in a quiet room or one filled with machine noise.

 

[Joe King]

Hmmm.

If you cut the cord off, the algo in the firmware will think the same as if the plug doesn't have a third wire circuit. And if you leave the mic ON the cord, of course, it has an input.

I don't know. Going through my pile of old corded earpieces...yes, I save crap like that...I found a cheap double-prong patch cord and a Sony hangared ear player that I gave up on, it needed more wattage than any of my players or other gizmos, could generate. Could barely hear out the ears.

Those were the two devices that fit into the jack plug. Trouble is, the jack hole is recessed, and most cords have a shoulder that prevents them from going in all the way. I guess that's to sell the girls a special one that's 10x the price of others.

I dunno. Except that when plugged in, it does de-activate the speaker, now. So it's doing SOMETHING.

I'm still practicing the basic precaution - keep the damn phone isolated in a quiet room or one filled with machine noise.

You can test it by recording and then plugging the thing in. It'll either quit recording sound, or not. Either way, you'll know what works, or doesn't.