Last Updated on July 8, 2022 by Filip Poutintsev
Whenever we think about innovations, the most common thing that comes to our mind is obviously a camera, phone, laptop, microphone etc. These things have made our life so much easier and there’s not a single day that goes by without these things.
Needless to mention, smartphones have become so popular that children are starting to use them younger than ever. With the increasing presence of smartphones, laptops, desktops in business, modern organizations followed by our own personal use, everyone has become more dependent on these gadgets.
Microphones and Cameras on Personal Devices
It goes without saying that, there are lots of advantages of mics and camera on personal devices but have you ever wondered if there were any disadvantages to these things? What could they possibly be? Let’s find out!
1. Spying
We all know that to some extent websites such as google, amazon is always remembering the stuff that we search on the internet. They collect the information from our search histories and target us with the same kind of ads. We all thought that it was a coincidence right? But it’s actually not.
The pictures that we take on our phones are scanned and are collected on the databases. The features that we have on our phones or laptops like “Hey Siri” and “Hey Google” is always listening to our voices, the conversations that we have with them are recorded.
Many wanted criminals are recognized and caught by this key feature. Due to the importance of catching the terrorist or criminal, they tap into the phone system of various people to locate the target. We can never know when someone is listening to us.
Scary, right?
2. Cyber Attack
Hackers can also gain access to your device with extraordinary ease via apps, PDF files, multimedia messages and even emojis. The hacker can
- Unethically get access to all documents from the device
- Take pictures and stream videos from their camera.
- Capture past or live audio from the microphone.
- Upload incriminating images/documents to their PC, and notify the police.
Always make sure to cover your webcam with tape, and plug out your microphones when you’re done using them. You never know who’s watching, or what’s happening in the background on your device. It’s only paranoia until it’s too late.
3. Blackmail
We’ve seen so many stories emerge of teenagers being tapped while watching p*rn from the camera of their phones, laptops and doing illicit activities. They are blackmailed and threatened if they don’t do what the hackers ask them to do and if they refuse, they leak the video and ultimately ruin their life.
4. Overindulgence
Due to the fact that cameras on our phones are so easy to access, people tend to not live in the moment and only think about capturing it on their phones. It’s become hard to even hold a conversation with someone without checking one’s phone. They can also become a major distraction in the classroom.
They are seen clicking pictures and videos and posting it on social media just for likes and comment rather than enjoying life at the moment.
5. Eavesdropping
It’s no news that every smartphone, a laptop has a microphone. The main concern of having a microphone on our personal devices is someone may be eavesdropping on our private conversations and also can be used for data collection.
For Example, the company called Alphonso uses smartphone microphones to record the ambient noise of the owner’s environment and creates a database of TV shows and movies that the phone’s owner has watched, which then it sells this data to advertisers hungry to target advertisements to those users.
Conclusion
While the personal devices that we use now have a lot of amazing key features like camera and microphone that help us to capture various moments and store the beauty of it for forever, it can also be used to destroy our lives. Every innovation that is used by us have both advantages and disadvantages, but it’s up to us to be safe and secure.
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