Why Qualcomm believes its new always-on camera for phones isnt a security risk

Date:
Fri, 03 Dec 2021 19:46:35 +0000

Description:
An always-on camera is one of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1s biggest new features, and Qualcomm is certain it isnt a security risk.

FULL STORY ======================================================================

One of the biggest new features of the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset is an always-on camera. Yes, you read that right. An always-on camera on your
phone.

It means your future smartphone - this chipset will likely be in a lot of the best Android phones of 2022 - would be able to constantly run its front and rear cameras.

Flights and accommodation for this launch event were funded by Qualcomm, but the views reflect the writer's own independent opinion.

The idea is itll allow for innovations that mean you dont have to touch your phone to activate it. For example, it may allow you to one day be able to unlock your phone when your hands are busy.

Other examples Qualcomm has given is that certain apps could introduce security features through this new tech.

One demonstration showed how an app could track other faces in the front cameras view, so it could work out if someone is looking over your shoulder while youre looking at private information or entering your banking details.

While this has its use cases, it will understandably worry some users when it comes to potential security risks. According to Qualcomm, this isnt an issue. Its going to scare some people

During its Tech Summit 2021 event, Qualcomm reassured customers that theyve tackled this in a sensible manner.

Judd Heap, VP of Product Management at Qualcomms Camera, Computer Vision and Video departments, told TechRadar, The always-on aspect is frankly going to scare some people so we wanted to do this responsibly.

The low power aspect where the camera is always looking for a face happens without ever leaving the Sensing Hub. All of the AI and the image processing is done in that block, and that data is not even exportable to DRAM.

We took great care to make sure that no-one can grab that data and so someone cant watch you through your phone.

This means the data from the always-on camera wont be usable by other apps on your phone or sent to the cloud. It should stick in this one area of the phones chipset - thats what Heap is referring to as the Sensing Hub - for detecting your face.

Heap continues, We added this specific hardware to the Sensing Hub as we believe its the next step in the always-on body of functions that need to be on the chip. Were already listening, so we thought the camera would be the next logical step.

Weve seen always-on microphones in smartphones for the last few years to ensure you can open up apps such as Siri or Google Assistant without having
to touch your device. This is similar for that, but for the camera.

Separately, Qualcomm has confirmed that the camera cannot capture photos or video through this element of the Sensing Hub on the new chipset.

Heap said, It can usher in a lot of really good security features as well. It could even be potentially something that means you wont need your lock screen anymore. Your phone will just know the context at all times.

For those concerned about an always-on camera, you may have to avoid handsets with the Snapdragon 8 Gen1 SoC in them as Qualcomm has yet to confirm if this is a feature you'll be able to disable.

We will have a few OEMs picking up the feature in this generation. There will be even more in the next generation, next year.

We dont yet know which phones will be supporting this feature, or how itll be implemented. Well have to wait until the launch events for handsets like the Oppo Find X4 , Xiaomi 12 and OnePlus 10 to be sure of how these manufacturers will use the always-on camera. Why Qualcomm's next flagship chip isn't called the Snapdragon 898



======================================================================
Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/why-qualcomm-believes-its-new-always-on-camera- for-phones-isnt-a-security-risk/


--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 (Linux/64)
* Origin: tqwNet Technology News (1337:1/100)