Barometers Can Hear, and Sense Finger Taps

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that smartphone barometer data, accessible without permission, can be exploited to detect speaker activity and finger taps with high accuracy, revealing sensitive user information.

Contribution

It is the first to show that low-rate barometer samples can leak sensitive information like speaker activity and finger tap locations.

Findings

Barometer samples can detect speaker activity with >= 95% accuracy.

Barometer data can identify touchscreen finger taps with 100% accuracy.

Low-rate barometer samples can reveal finger tap positions.

Abstract

Most modern smartphones are equipped with a barometer to sample air pressure. Accessing these samples is deemed harmless, hence does not require any permission. In this work, we show, however, that these samples can reveal sensitive information in smartphones with ingress protection. For the first time, it is shown that barometer samples, even at a low rate of 25 Hz, can leak information about the smartphone's speaker activity. Specifically, we use these samples to detect with high accuracy (>= 95%) whether the smartphone's speaker is silent or playing a sound such as a ringtone. In addition, we use the samples to detect the activity of an external speaker. Finally, we show that low-rate barometer samples can be used to 1) detect touchscreen finger taps with 100% accuracy, and 2) gain information about the positions of finger taps.