…but only the photos you just took, so that you can’t use the Photos app to sneak a look at any earlier pictures already on the phone. You can see why this sort of feature is at odds with security: every specially-programmed exception in the lockscreen opens up a whole new risk.įor example, after you’ve taken pictures on a locked iPhone (a feature, annoyingly, that can no longer be turned off), you can browse and even edit them using the Photos app… If you’re in a panic and in a hurry, the ability to dial 112 (or 911, 999, 000, etc.) without first fiddling with your passcode makes perfect sense.īut many other “use at any time” features are there purely for convenience, such as swiping on the camera icon on a locked iPhone in order to take pictures without authenticating first. Some of these “use at any time” features are there for regulatory reasons, such as the ability to make emergency calls without unlocking the phone. In practice, though, lockscreens have become less about locking your phone, and more about merely limiting the features you can use without knowing the passcode. The benefits of a lockscreen are obvious: it makes it harder for a crook who steals your phone to steal your personal information as well, and it protects you from the sort of childish pranks that some so-called “friends” can’t resist playing if they see your phone unattended. When you next try to use your phone, it pops up a special screen on which you need to put in a secret passcode or scan your fingerprint before you can get back in and access the apps and data on the device. The theory is simple: after a suitably brief interval (we recommend a maximum of two minutes, inconvenience notwithstanding), your phone locks. Lockscreens on mobile phones have become a poisoned chalice.
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