
Google is celebrating great success with its Pixel phones. Every now and then embarrassing mistakes creep in, which can have bad consequences for you. This time it's about the image editing function, which can be your undoing if you have shared personal data.
Pixel phones: Edited images can be recovered
Pixel phone owners who have used the smartphone's photo editing feature in the past could be in for a real problem. For example, anyone who has edited an image of a credit card on a Pixel phone in such a way that critical information is not displayed could now be in trouble. Because the data of the edited image is not completely removed , but can be restored by software:
The problem is particularly critical where images are not re-edited and old data is deleted. If you share an image on Twitter, the system will process it again and you are safe. However, if you uploaded the image to Discord before January 2023, where the images were not touched again by the system, attackers could restore the edited screenshots (source: heise).
The situation becomes particularly precarious wherever the old images are still available and strangers can access them. For example on Discord or in emails you sent somewhere to verify yourself. The areas you blackened could be made visible again.
The Pixel 7 Pro from Google is also affected:
Google solves problem with latest software update
The issue with the edited screenshots was reported to Google in January 2023 and should be fixed with the March update. If you have installed the update on your Pixel phone, you can safely edit your pictures on the phones again or paint over things without them being recoverable.
Comments
Post a Comment