iPhone's Accelerometer Can be Used to Record Keystrokes

Tweet

Your iPhone can be used as a tool for spying. And you don’t even have to be entering data on the device itself. Researchers have found a way to use the iPhone’s accelerometer to track keypresses on a nearby keyboard.

A team from Georgia Tech School of Computer Sciences has developed a means for the iPhone’s accelerometer to work as a keylogger. The technique involves sensing vibrations from a keyboard, pairing successive keystrokes, and sorting where these originated from the keyboard (whether left or right side), as well as how close the keystrokes were.

While vibrations and key locations themselves may not be useful as raw data, the system compares the keystrokes against an online dictionary, and can guess the resulting words with up to 80% accuracy.

A similar technology has been developed for use with the device’s microphone, although the researchers say the accelerometer method is far more useful. For instance, while the microphone is governed by privacy laws, the device’s accelerometer is not. The information gleaned from vibrations is also more useful, since microphones can pick up all sorts of noise, too.

The system is a bit limited, though. Given the limitations of tracking vibrations, only words three letters or longer can be determined. Also, the phone should be a mere three inches away from the target keyboard. But as accelerometer technology becomes more sensitive, only time will tell if our iPhone’s motion-sensing technologies might be used as keyboard loggers by authorities doing surveillance. Is this another potential “big brother” scenario that phone makers will have to address?

Image from Cult of Mac