After fears that smart speakers such as Amazon's Echo speakers could be used to eavesdrop on conversations, it is now the turn of the Apple AirPods wireless earbuds to face the same apprehensions. Apple with iOS 12 update for the iPhone and iPad, had introduced a new feature, called Live Listen, for the AirPods that is aimed to help hearing impaired. The Live Listen feature of the AirPods, can be used to listen in on conversations. "But people can commandeer Live Listen to snoop on their boss or partner by hiding their iPhone in the same room as their victim. Anyone using the tool can simply turn up the volume on their iPhone's microphone to listen through AirPods," The Sun reported.
If it is being used for anything other than its intended purpose, this could be worrying for the company. Apple has been very vocal about protecting user privacy.
If u have AirPods , u can press “Live Listen” to “On” and leave your phone in the room with someone and u can hear what they saying, thank me later pic.twitter.com/fC6KYmqpB4— arnold (@arnoldcrndo) January 9, 2019
The “Live Listen” feature was introduced in an iPhone software update in September for Apple’s AirPods. It was previously available for a few models of Apple-certified hearing aids. Hopefully, the Cupertino-giant will surely take note of the matter and hopefully push an update fixing the issue or maybe reducing its range so that audio capture range doesn't extend beyond the room.
Comments
0 comment