The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 31, 2024
Filed:
Mar. 03, 2021
Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA (US);
Deepak Iyer, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Jessica Aranda, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Cindy M. Barrett, Portola Valley, CA (US);
Patrick Coffman, Cupertino, CA (US);
Julien Freudiger, San Francisco, CA (US);
Alexander S. Haas, Cupertino, CA (US);
Nahir A. Khan, San Francisco, CA (US);
Behkish J. Manzari, San Francisco, CA (US);
Kevin M. Miller, Underhill, VT (US);
Brian Pietsch, Cupertino, CA (US);
Stephen J. Rhee, San Jose, CA (US);
Stefan Stuerke, San Jose, CA (US);
Eric L. Wilson, San Jose, CA (US);
Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA (US);
Abstract
Embodiments described herein provide a software-based privacy indicator for a camera and microphone that focuses not purely on hardware status (e.g., on or off), but on whether potentially private data is flowing to the system or an application. If based purely on hardware status, the indicator for an electronic device may be shown in scenarios where no data actually flows to the system or applications. The privacy indicator will be enabled if any camera or microphone data is relayed to the operating system or an application that is executed via the operating system. When the device uses the microphone and camera to capture environmental metadata about the surroundings of the device without providing any audio samples, images, or video frames to the system or an application, the privacy indicator will not be enabled.