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Woman Claims iPhones Are Constantly Taking Pictures But Others Disagree

Woman Claims iPhones Are Constantly Taking Pictures But Others Disagree

Many were quick to shut down the conspiracy theory

Tom Wood

Tom Wood

A video on TikTok claims that Apple's iPhone cameras take a picture of users every five seconds, but - whilst that might seem to be true - others have been quick to dispel the conspiracy theory.

So, it's a major concern of the modern world that our smart devices could be spying on us at all times.

Of course, there's a load of things that allow these devices to collect data on us such as location services and stored information, but we can rest easy at night knowing that they're not constantly taking pictures of us.

That doesn't mean that some don't believe they are, though.

On TikTok, one such conspiracy theorist filmed her phone with an infrared lens to show that it flashes every five seconds.

She claimed that this is the phone taking periodic pictures from the camera, but those in the comments under her video were keen to point out that it's actually another feature.

The phone is apparently actually scanning to see if you're looking at it, using a feature called the Attention-Aware feature.

This feature allows the phone to check whether you're looking at the screen or not and dimming the display, expanding notifications, and generally performing functions based on that.

It's apparently scanning to see if you're looking.
PA

Sure, it is watching you, but it's trying to help, basically.

It's just like the way that Amazon's devices are constantly listening to her whether you've said 'Alexa' but not bugging your home.

One person commented: "Of course it does if you have Face ID set up. It's like Alexa or Google Home. Constantly listening for the Hey Google or Hey Alexa. Same concept."

Another said: "The phone is not taking pictures, it's only seeing if you are looking at the phone so it won't lock while you are looking at it. You can deactivate that."

It's true, you can stop it if you're not keen.

Head on into Face ID & Passcode, then enter your password and scroll down until you see attention.

There, you'll see two options - Require Attention for Face ID and Attention-Aware Features - that you can turn off if you so desire.

You can pretty easily disable the features, too.
PA

The first feature states: "TrueDepth camera will provide an additional level of security by verifying that you are looking at iPhone before unlocking. Some sunglasses may block attention detection."

The second reads: "iPhone will check for attention before dimming the display, expanding a notification when locked or lowering the volume of some alerts."

There you have it, that's at least one less thing to worry about.

LADbible has contacted Apple for a comment.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Interesting, Technology, Apple, iPhone, TikTok