Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Visual Surveillance Snags Smartphone Texts

Last month, there was news from video provider Qumu of their discomforting survey that at least half of Americans would use smartphones to secretly spy on others. 

Now there is rattling news that spy software can easily do that kind of job. The software can reveal what others are texting in their personal emails or text messages sent forth on their smartphones just by the snooper using a smartphone camera or advanced camera like a digital SLR that shoots HD video, which could read a screen up to 60 metres away.

Researchers from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill have used iSpy, the program, as proof that keying a private email message or text message in public, whether on a near-empty train or at the far end of a park bench away from everyone else, is still risky business.

They successfully were able to compromise the privacy of users typing on virtual keyboards with iSpy. They say iSpy can identify all the text typed on a smartphone display using video footage of the screen. (more)