In a move that will affect millions of smartphone users, Google is removing a key Android feature amid privacy concerns.
According to a report in Android Police, Android 11, the next version of the world’s most popular mobile operating system, will prevent apps from using third-party camera software to take photos. Instead, the phone’s default built-in camera app will have to be used.
When taking photos, current versions of Android allow apps to display a pop-up camera picker from which the user can select their preferred camera app. However, this option has been removed in Android 11.
This means users who installed popular camera apps such as VSCO, Adobe Lightroom or A Better Camera, will have to revert to their phone’s built-in camera software when taking photos or video from within another app. Users will still be free to use any camera app they wish by launching it directly. Only the camera picker option is affected.
The new restriction exists to prevent apps from grabbing your location without permission. Even if an app has been denied access to your location data, it’s still possible to circumvent this restriction when using third-party camera apps.
The problem arises because camera apps typically embed location data within their image files, and without the new restriction there’s no way to prevent this information from being returned to the calling app along with the photo.
While I can understand Google’s reasoning here, the current solution feels like an unnecessary inconvenience that doesn’t completely solve the problem. Disabling the camera picker doesn’t prevent images, complete with embedded location data, from being uploaded from the gallery instead.
Anyone updating to a new version of Android will surely be surprised and frustrated to find such a convenient feature removed, so I hope a more elegant solution can be found sooner rather than later. A simple way for advanced users to re-enable the camera picker would probably do just fine.
Latest Stories
-
CAFCC: “Dreams need to score early to unsettle Zamalek” – Former Zamalek striker Felix Aboagye
42 mins -
GHS launches mobile app to counter misinformation about vaccines
53 mins -
Election 2024: Care Ghana warns EC of recruiting political actors as Returning Officers
1 hour -
Mohammed Kudus gets 5th Premier League assist as West Ham hold Liverpool
1 hour -
Religious support source of my success – Asantehene
1 hour -
Sierra Leone energy minister resigns over electricity crisis, as power returns to capital
1 hour -
EC accuses Bright Simons, IMANI Africa of peddling falsehood
2 hours -
GRA/SML contract: Akufo-Addo has whitewashed the KPMG report – Inusah Fuseini
2 hours -
USM Alger receive warm welcome at Oujda Airport ahead of game against RS Berkane
3 hours -
2023/24 Ghana Hockey League to kick-off this weekend
3 hours -
All payments received from our contract with GRA are performance-based, says SML
3 hours -
Marrakech 2024: Ghana’s Zinabu Issah wins gold in women’s discus throw
3 hours -
Our contract with GRA followed due process; ignore contrary reports – SML
3 hours -
SML is just Agyapa in suit and tie – Bright Simons
4 hours -
Domelevo condemns selection of KPMG to audit GRA/SML contract as illegal and unprofessional
4 hours