The worst part is that this kind of thing is far from new.
It’s a privacy nightmare, and it will probably happen again.
“Redaction tools can be reliable, but like any software, they are susceptible to bugs and vulnerabilities.
gorodenkoff / Getty Images
Privacy Nightmare
The exploit,dubbedacropalypse, exploits a flaw in the Pixel’s built-in Markup tool.
This means that, down the line, anyone with the know-how can see what you want to hide.
Redaction tools can be reliable, but like any software, they are susceptible to bugs and vulnerabilities.
Christopher Ames / Getty Images
It’s not quite as bad as it seems.
Self Protection
This brings us to how you might protect yourself in the future.
Job one is always to be aware of what you are sharing.
For example, every image you share from your iPhone will be sent with its location data intact.
Then, remember never to trust redaction tools.
Make your redactions, and then take a new screenshot of that redacted version.
This screenshot is just pixels and cannot be reversed.
If you’re really paranoid, use another camera to actually snap a photo of your phone’s screen.
If you are working with PDFs, you could do the same.
Even better, although this seems old-fashioned, share a printed version instead of an electronic version.
And it’s not just images, either.
