Front infrared flash continually flashing

[donchurch]

Greetings,

   With all of the spying and facial recognition etc. going on it's a little unsettling to find one's phone possibly doing just that.  I've had this PinePhone with PMOS for less that a year and finally remembered to check on this activity since accidentally finding 2 other phones (N900 and LG V20 with aftermarket OSes) doing the same thing.  To be fair the PinePhone IR flash does stop after several minutes in the sleep mode which the others didn't and I understand that  it's used as a proximity sensor but still....

[wibble]

Please explain what you think is happening, and why it shouldn't be. It sounds like you're conflating the operation with the proximity sensor with that of the front camera.

[donchurch]

Please explain what you think is happening, and why it shouldn't be. It sounds like you're conflating the operation with the proximity sensor with that of the front camera.

I know it's been over a year since I posted that.

I posted it to raise a flag and I quit using the phone, waiting for things to improve.  The battery life is still poor and  the IR still flashes constantly.  There is no reason a proximity sensor should flash when the power button is pushed to turn off the display.  It's used to turn off the display when the phone is put up to one's head or maybe even keep the display off when in the pocket.  Being that the phone does not have that functionality it makes sense to disable the IR flash for the sake of power consumption.  Besides all that I don't trust big business nor any government.  The line between them has blurred and with the push for facial recognition, which uses IR, I don't like it.  I see the same issue with other phones in my possession.  How ironic it would be for the phone freedom crowd to be targeted with spying chip in their "secure open source devices".

[KC9UDX]

Well *you* could peruse the code and find out what's going on, and let *us* know
. that's the whole point of open-source.

[donchurch]

That is the beauty of the collaboration isn't it.  I'm just sharing info that might have been unknown  and  if someone that deals with the particular code that operates the IR flash is interested it checking it out that would be swell.  I studied Borland C++ v3 for DOS back in the day and created a land surveying app and later moved it over to Python for the touch screen interface.  I'm pretty sure my two languages will not do here but if I could I would.  The only other languages I've studied are Spanish and French and I don't plan on starting another that might very well be futile in solving the spy chip dilemma.

[alaraajavamma]

Are you talking about the led light which is located on top left corner?
Afaik it is just led and it can be used to notify users for something - the blinking what you described sounds like suspend notification and the led blinks when device is "suspending soon". In pmos the led will be turned off after suspend IF there are no notifications (like unread sms or something like that).

If this is not what you talked about then I don't know what you mean because I have never seen anything like that with my PP.

[donchurch]

Are you talking about the led light which is located on top left corner?
Afaik it is just led and it can be used to notify users for something - the blinking what you described sounds like suspend notification and the led blinks when device is "suspending soon". In pmos the led will be turned off after suspend IF there are no notifications (like unread sms or something like that).

If this is not what you talked about then I don't know what you mean because I have never seen anything like that with my PP.

The flashing that I speak of is infrared, and it flashes about 15 times per second.  You cannot see it without an IR viewing device.  I accidentally spotted it with my night vision unit.  I get a blue flash indicator light that goes off frequently and I don't get notified of any event and turned off the lock screen notifications so that's another unresolved issue.  In the photo, the pointer is aimed at the offending IR flash location.

[alaraajavamma]

The flashing that I speak of is infrared, and it flashes about 15 times per second.  You cannot see it without an IR viewing device.  I accidentally spotted it with my night vision unit.  I get a blue flash indicator light that goes off frequently and I don't get notified of any event and turned off the lock screen notifications so that's another unresolved issue.  In the photo, the pointer is aimed at the offending IR flash location.

Ohh okay - did not know that. Does it help if you turn off automatic brightness from system settings?

If it makes any peace for your mind there are many reasons why Pinephone is the opposite of regular spying phone.
BIggest one is the open source software. And if you think how many things are not working you will notice that it would be nearly impossible to do similar spying than regular andoid/apple phone even if the software wanted to

[donchurch]

The flashing that I speak of is infrared, and it flashes about 15 times per second.  You cannot see it without an IR viewing device.  I accidentally spotted it with my night vision unit.  I get a blue flash indicator light that goes off frequently and I don't get notified of any event and turned off the lock screen notifications so that's another unresolved issue.  In the photo, the pointer is aimed at the offending IR flash location.

Ohh okay - did not know that. Does it help if you turn off automatic brightness from system settings?

If it makes any peace for your mind there are many reasons why Pinephone is the opposite of regular spying phone.
BIggest one is the open source software. And if you think how many things are not working you will notice that it would be nearly impossible to do similar spying than regular andoid/apple phone even if the software wanted to

I always keep the auto brightness off and I use LineageOS without GAPPS, hoping that the open source version of Android is safe for my main phone which flashes 100% of the time.  Sometimes the Pinephone flashes for extended periods after the screen is turned off.  Not sure of the different states, timing and effect.  I read about the PC motherboard manufacturer, maybe SuperMicro that was found to have a secret spy chip installed on boards that may have been used with government and/or proprietary use PCs.  I suppose if the Pinephone designers verify all of the components and chips etc in the phone then we should be safe unless of course they've been bribed to betray us all.  The DoD has been bought off and is a leader in the depopulation agenda from what I hear/read so who the hell knows where all this leads.  

[Kevin Kofler]

Considering that the PinePhone is manufactured in Shenzhen by a Hong-Kong-based company, I believe that if anybody were to install spy equipment on it, it would not be the US DoD.