Leading mobile chip manufacturer Qualcomm has defended a new always-on feature in the ‘selfie camera’ found in next-gen phones powered by its tech. It says the devices would know “to act different when you’re not looking back.”
Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon processor powers many of the 2022 smartphone models soon to be rolled out in stores, including Sony, Motorola and OnePlus. The company has offered smartphone manufacturers the option to keep the forward-facing selfie-camera always on, so as to constantly be scanning for the owner’s face.
It may not be clear to smartphone owners why such a feature would be considered desirable, but Qualcomm VP Judd Heape argued during the company’s Tech Summit in November that it gives owners an “advantage.”
“Your phone’s front camera is always securely looking for your face, even if you don’t touch it,” he explained.
The feature is being touted for enabling the phone to unlock itself when it “sees” the user’s face, lock it when they glance away, and even hide notifications if the camera spots someone else around.
Heape seemed surprised in a conversation with the Washington Post, published on Monday, that no one had thought of designing a phone this way before, insisting the tech was completely safe and privacy-oriented. “What’s happening here is detecting a binary: is there a face, or is there not a face,” he pointed out, arguing “there is not a photograph taken. There is no video being recorded.” None of the data being analyzed for the presence of a face actually leaves the chip, he insists.
It’s not clear how many of the features that the company included in its press release for the latest Snapdragon processor actually exist yet. It would in theory be up to the smartphones’ manufacturers whether to build them into their devices.
Defenders of Qualcomm’s always-on camera appear to position it as the lesser of two evils rather than attempt to defend the kind of 24/7 real-time surveillance it makes possible. Moor Insights & Strategy analyst Anshel Sag suggested that microphones – constantly feeding sound to the cloud – were “far more invasive” than their video equivalents.
Qualcomm is also apparently spinning the new feature as a useful new habit: its Tech Summit presentation showed a man baking in his kitchen, merely glancing at the phone to unlock it rather than getting his phone dirty in order to find out the next step of the recipe.
While some smartphone users who reacted on online forums seemed unwilling to trade their privacy for even the most extreme convenience, others seemed no to mind, suggesting that the feature was as trivial as Apple’s Face ID.
source: RT
Împotriva articolelor redacției noastre, persoanele nemulțumite pot formula Contestație în termen de 10 zile de la publicarea articolului, la judecătoria Orășenească nr. 1 München Bayern Deutschland, in conformitate cu Legea federală Germană. Considerăm că nu se pot formula acțiuni la instanțele din România deoarece nici o persoană care activează în trustul nostru nu poate fi extrasă de sub jurisdicția federală germană. Considerăm că redacția noastră nu răspunde în fața autorităților din România ci doar celor federale sau civile germane. deoarece legea română nu are efecte de extraneitate asupra redacției chiar dacă subiectul știrilor face obiectul unor evenimente sau persoane din România și sunt scrise în limba română. Limba română nu este izvor de extraneitate a legii.
absolvent WEB DESIGN Academia Britanică de Comunicare Iasi - absolvent COMUNICARE IN AFACERI Academia Britanica de Afaceri si Comunicare -absolvent JURNALISM EDITORIAL - London School University - 2019 inscris la echivalare diploma la Universitatea Politehnica Timisoara - absolvent studii de Drept Universitatea Europeană Drăgan, cursuri in Drept la Universitatea de Vest Timisoara, absolvent studii de proiectare, pastor coordonator in Biserica Protestanta Evanghelica,
Android Developer pe Google Play și plugin developer la Oxwall, creator de teme Wordpress și Oxwall, operator Wordpress, Drupal, Oxwall, Osclass, Moodle, tehnologii HTML și PHP
Officers at France’s Saint-Lazare station have reportedly shot a knife-wielding man, who ran at staff shouting “Allahu Akbar. France is ruled by the Islamic State,” following a routine request to follow Covid safety protocols. DETAILS TO FOLLOW source: RT Împotriva articolelor redacției noastre, persoanele nemulțumite pot formula Contestație în termen de 10 zile de la […]
The Ethiopian Foreign Ministry has given seven United Nations (UN) representatives in the country just 72 hours to leave, declaring them “persona non grata” and accusing them of “meddling” in Addis Ababa’s internal affairs. In a statement posted on Twitter on Thursday, the ministry accused seven members of the UN’s representation in Ethiopia of “meddling […]
More than a decade after losing millions in brother’s Ponzi scheme, couple is found dead from gunshot wounds in their Florida home The sister of disgraced Wall Street titan Bernie Madoff and her husband – who were also the victims of the Ponzi schemer’s massive fraud – have died from gunshot wounds in a case […]
