Is your phone watching you? [Video] - 63K Episode 001

Can hackers really steal your credit card information when you place your credit cards near your phone? Are hackers watching you as you sleep? This article says they are, I think it's a crazy world of hype and here's why.

Transcript

So we've recently done some reconfiguration of our house in which we moved the first floor into the basement, the basement into the attic, and the attic out into the garage.

So that means that my office is now where my basement used to be and a nice, fluffy rabbit has taken up residence in what used to be my office.

His name is Rocky.

In fact, compared to my previous video you'll notice that my desk is actually pretty clean and empty.

The fact of the matter is that I love having a nice, empty desk.

And I'm not one that likes to accumulate clutter on the desk because it kind of makes me feel cramped as I am trying to work. Whether it be at the computer or on an electronic or woodworking project.

Now, of course, what that means is that now that my desk no longer has anything on it, I actually need to start moving things to the floor.

Now, unfortunately the camera can't capture everything that is in this room. But, luckily, I have my cell phone.

So, just by using my cell phone camera I can start showing you various sections of the--ooop, hi, there you are. And I can see various sections of this room and basically everything that used to be on my desk is on the floor now.

You never would have known that unless I actually took out my camera phone, because camera phones, um, have this unique ability that they can capture pretty much whatever is in the room.

I'll just put this away for right now.

Oh my gosh! I put it next to my credit card!

And my wallet!

And the Blues Brothers!

Now, this is very disturbing considering I just put my phone, which has a camera on it right next to some sensitive information.

Now, I hope I didn't leave myself open to identity theft.

Of course, my financial data is just the tip of the iceberg, because according to an article by Matthew Sparkes in The Telegraph, posted on September 24, 2014: "Millions of Britons are leaving themselves open to being watched by hackers while having sex, going to the toilet, or getting dressed," warns a security firm, Kaspersky Lab.

"As they are unaware of the dangers posed by their smartphone or tablet camera. 57% of adults have had sex within sight of a camera enabled device."

Really?

"Another 30 percent admitted to leaving sensitive documents or payment cards near their devices which could potentially be recorded by hackers!"

Anyway, so just by leaving my phone carelessly by my credit card a hacker could have broken into my phone and gotten my credit card number.

Because it was within sight of the phone!

What I think this survey failed to comprehend is that just because you are in sight of the phone doesn't mean you are in sight of the camera in the phone.

Because, I don't know about you, but usually whenever I put my phone somewhere, I actually put it face down or face up.

Because, if I put my phone over here, there is no way that my phone can actually get my credit card information.

The only way this is an issue, is if you store your camera like that... with your credit cards... like that.

Or, when you go to bed at night you put your, you put your phone on the headboard, like that.

Otherwise, all you're getting is just the ceiling.

And I don't want to diminish the threat. There is, there is a real threat.

However, a camera does not pick up everything in the room. A camera actually needs to be pointed at something in order to actually see it.

So, what the article really should have said was that, "Britons could be filmed having sex if their camera phone is propped up against the wall filming them in their bed."

Now, the problem I have with this article is that it really goes into the hype area. Just by having your phone placed within sight it is recording your every move.

Now the threat is real, yes, hackers can get into your phone, they can get into your computer, they can activate your webcam or your camera's phone... or your phone's camera... whichever you have.

But remember, not many people go to bed at night with their camera propped up.

And if they do... I just need to ask, why?

So, in reality, it's not necessarily the camera inside the phone that I'm worried about, it's the microphone of the phone.

Because that could always be on and no matter if it is in your pocket, anywhere in the room, it can pick up sound.

I think any conversation is a little bit more juicier than a chance that the phone's camera might pick up something.

And I think that it is more likely that people are actually going to have something incriminating on the phone, already stored, that that took themselves while holding the camera or placing the camera somewhere so that they could film... than it is to just periodically pop in and see what ever the phone is recording at that time.

So I hope you've found this video informative, because I really do like cutting through the hype, because some headlines can be misleading.

Yes, there are threats, but we need to understand what that threat means and how it can be achieved.

So, until next time this is Chad signing off.

Now where did I put my phone?

[Phone rings]

There's my phone.

Hello?