Privacy concern infrared signal

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Level 1

8 points

Privacy concern infrared signal

I was positioning security cameras in my house last night and the night vision on those cameras was activated. When I was looking at my phone screen to check the camera position, I noticed that there was a constant but intermittent signal or “flash“ being emitted from what appeared to be the facial recognition scanner on the left side of the exposed phone speaker at the top the center of my phone.

Why was this happening? what was I seeing? And is it a privacy issue?

No other applications were open or running on my phone at the time.

Do I need to cover up the camera, sensors and scanner at the top of my phone like I do the camera on my laptop now?

iPhone 11 Pro Max

Posted on Feb 26, 2024 7:04 AM

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Answer 1

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Mac Jim ID

Level 9

60,284 points

Feb 26, 2024 7:16 AM in response to willing1

Nothing unusual there. Face ID uses an infrared camera combined with a true depth camera for facial recognition. Not sure why you would be worried about a privacy issue. There is no information that can be gained and your Face ID information is stored in the Secure Enclave on your iPhone which is not accessible. To further understand the process, review this article:

About Face ID advanced technology - Apple Support

That article also shows that what you saw is expected and poses no concern:

When viewed through certain types of cameras, you might notice light output from the TrueDepth camera. This is expected as some cameras might detect infrared light. Some might also notice a faint light output from the TrueDepth camera when viewed in a very dark room. This is expected in extremely dark settings.

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