A recent report issued by security specialists, claims smartphone and laptop batteries enable spies to track you down. According to them, the HTML5 codes that websites use collect information about visitors’ laptops and smartphones.
Many talks have been made in relation to the vulnerability of smartphones and laptops in the face of hackers’ attacks. Many more efforts have been made to put an end to such threats and yet, new system breaches are discovered each day.
The most recent discovery that system security experts have made is related to the structure of smartphone and laptop batteries. Apparently, these components were designed to respond to certain queries that websites make in relation to the battery level of devices.
The HTML5 code was created to verify whether the device is sufficiently charged to view the content of the website. If data received from the smartphone or the laptop battery showed that the battery is almost empty, certain features on the website would be disabled so the battery life would be prolonged.
As interesting and useful as this feature may seem, it can, nevertheless, provide access to ill-intentioned persons on our laptops and smartphones. At first, they can find out which websites you are visiting based on the traces it leaves on your device. Then by summing up all the information from all the accessed websites, hackers can say where you are located, as well as many other activities you may be carrying out with the help of your personal device.
Tech savvies think the situation should be remedied as soon as possible as there is little that users can do to protect themselves against these privacy intrusions. Moreover, websites do not ask for permission when checking visitors’ battery levels, so users can’t prevent their devices from being scanned.
Developers may be forced to find other solutions than the regular security precautions they have been using so far. Until this new software breach has been discovered, developers relied on private browsing and cookies to protect their devices against hackers.
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