Plans are being drawn up for the Apple TV set-top box to feature a built-in camera, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
If true, that move could facilitate FaceTime calls and other video conferencing applications directly from the TV.
Recently, Apple added the FaceTime app in its tvOS 17 update. For now, users can utilise their iPhones or iPads as cameras for video calls on the big screen.
However, a speculated move to integrating a camera into the Apple TV itself would enhance the overall user experience, and eliminate the need for a separate device.
Integrating a camera directly onto the set-top box could also augment features such as gesture-based interactive controls.
But while sticking a camera onto the TV set-top-box could have tech geeks mighty excited, that move isn’t going to do much to placate the camp that believes it is increasingly difficult to keep personal data hidden from Apple.
New research from Finland’s Aalto University suggests that the default apps on an iPhone, iPad and MacBook collect personal data — even when they are seemingly disabled.
“We focused on apps that are an integral part of the platform and ecosystem. These apps are glued to the platform, and getting rid of them is virtually impossible,” Associate Professor Janne Lindqvist, head of the computer science department at Aalto, said in a statement.
Researchers analysed a total of eight Apple apps: Safari, Siri, Family Sharing, iMessage, FaceTime, Location Services, Find My and Touch ID.
“Due to the way the user interface is designed, users don’t know what is going on. For example, the user is given the option to enable or not enable Siri, Apple’s virtual assistant. But enabling only refers to whether you use Siri’s voice control. Siri collects data in the background from other apps you use, regardless of your choice, unless you understand how to go into the settings and specifically change that,” says Lindqvist.
The report found that the process to somewhat protect privacy was convoluted and wasn’t designed to be intuitively or easily accessible. “‘The online instructions for restricting data access are very complex and confusing, and the steps required are scattered in different places. There’s no clear direction on whether to go to the app settings, the central settings – or even both,” says Amel Bourdoucen, a doctoral researcher at Aalto. “When making adjustments, users don’t get feedback on whether they’ve succeeded. They then get lost along the way, go backwards in the process and scroll randomly, not knowing if they’ve done enough.”
The researchers also noted that answers as to how the collected data was being processed were still opaque. Lindqvist adds that it’s not possible to be sure, based on public documents, what Apple is doing with that data, but says that “it’s possible to conclude that the data will be used to train the artificial intelligence system behind Siri and to provide personalised user experiences, among other things.”
