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Camera Access permissions

  • 1 reply
  • 2 have this problem
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  • Last reply by Paul

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I have recently come across an issue that I think could be handled by the way Firefox requests permissions probably.

I have a OnePlus7 Pro and I use Firefox as the main browser on it. I have seen this and have confirmed my observations from the issues reported by other users that certain websites request the camera app access when opening them. For a brief moment, the front camera on the device opens up and closes. I thought this was a bug, but other users on the reddit forum for OnePlus confirm that this is the website requesting permission for camera access.

I promptly disabled the camera access for Firefox in my system's permissions and everything worked fine. I use Facebook on the browser and when there is an option to attach a photo as a comment, the app requests for camera access first and then opens the list of options. Chrome does it better, in my opinion, by presenting the gallery along with the Camera as the first option. This way, the camera is not requested until I click on the camera explicitly.

This also points to a security issue where the camera is opened without the user's permission by the website. This was immediately observable on my device because it has the sensor physically move, whereas lots of other devices do this every time and their users are unaware of it.

I am not sure if this doable from your perspective, but if we could get a delayed option to grant access to camera or revamp the file selection menu to something that doesn't assume that images would be the only option.

Thanks.

I have recently come across an issue that I think could be handled by the way Firefox requests permissions probably. I have a OnePlus7 Pro and I use Firefox as the main browser on it. I have seen this and have confirmed my observations from the issues reported by other users that certain websites request the camera app access when opening them. For a brief moment, the front camera on the device opens up and closes. I thought this was a bug, but other users on the reddit forum for OnePlus confirm that this is the website requesting permission for camera access. I promptly disabled the camera access for Firefox in my system's permissions and everything worked fine. I use Facebook on the browser and when there is an option to attach a photo as a comment, the app requests for camera access first and then opens the list of options. Chrome does it better, in my opinion, by presenting the gallery along with the Camera as the first option. This way, the camera is not requested until I click on the camera explicitly. This also points to a security issue where the camera is opened without the user's permission by the website. This was immediately observable on my device because it has the sensor physically move, whereas lots of other devices do this every time and their users are unaware of it. I am not sure if this doable from your perspective, but if we could get a delayed option to grant access to camera or revamp the file selection menu to something that doesn't assume that images would be the only option. Thanks.

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Hi

This is being caused by the website that you are viewing requesting access to your camera or microphone, possibly through near invisible tracking content on a website.

We could keep this request hidden, but we think it would be better for you to make an informed choice.

We are working on ways to reduce the frequency of these messages and this will hopefully be in a future update. In the meantime, you can adjust this in the Android application settings.