First of all I’m going to clarify that I don’t use Facebook or have it installed myself but I have family members who do with camera and microphone permissions enabled and there is nothing I can do about it.
I have looked this up on privacy related subreddits but most of the replies don’t have proper evidence or sources backing up their claims, with the most reasonable answer being that it’s not technically feasible.
However, as Facebook recently introduced a feature allowing them to scan your entire camera roll and send it to their servers, being able to store small snippets of video and sound long enough for them to be processed doesn’t really seem far off, especially since AI systems like Google Lens only take up to a few seconds to identify key details in an image.
That being said, I’m wondering if anyone here know if it’s actually possible for apps to record you and process it, and if it is, whether they do it or not.
On the devices I’ve used, GrapheneOS and iOS, there are OS level indicators when the microphone, camera, or location permissions are being used. Even when permission is granted, it will always indicate.
I am aware of that, but in the case of iOS (at least the version they are using) it’s a small green dot on only the screen side of the phone for the camera which isn’t visible to anyone not using the phone. Also, on the topic of indicators, would it be possible for the OS itself to use your camera and mic without displaying it?
On MacOS, there’s a hardware feature that makes it so whenever the camera is on, an LED must also be on. The OS can’t control that.
I’m not sure about other operating systems but I think that there’s lots of sandboxing involved in system services on android. You could ask on discuss.grapheneos.org.
Somewhat related: Add a toggle to disable the green location indicator · Issue #1886 · GrapheneOS/os-issue-tracker · GitHub
No I’ve not seen it. /r/privacy will give it “oh yes definitely and they capture every word and send it to your gran” but realistically there are device level indicators and lots of people keeping an eye out for evidence. They’re guilty of a TON of awful privacy practices by probably not that.
I honestly wouldn’t put it past them if they’re actually viewing your photos that you didn’t expressly upload to the app–that’s insane. But, they’re more likely constrained by the OS.