Be aware: ‘Fake’ mobile Oximeter applications make a comeback

Be aware: ‘Fake’ mobile Oximeter applications make a comeback

FPJ Web DeskUpdated: Saturday, September 19, 2020, 12:27 PM IST
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Pulse oximeter different from mobile application | AFP File Photo

In the recent past, some reports stated mobile Oximeter applications can help measure oxygen levels in the blood by using the phone's rear camera. But the claims made by these applications were fake. It took a while for many users to grasp this.

However, now these fake mobile Oximeter applications are back in circulation. Considering these applications become an instant hit among many users during this COVID-19 times, the cyber security arm of the government has requested people to take cognisance of such applications and avoid using them. It claimed that these applications will be sneaking in your phone to steal personal data from the mobile phone.

Maharashtra Cyber team had also issued a warning on such fake oximeter applications in the month of August.

In the recent past, Dr Deepak Baid, president, Association of Medical Consultants, told FPJ, "Oximeter apps available on mobile phones are useless. Firstly, an oximeter cannot work on camera but only on a radio frequency, that too, infrared. If one puts their finger on the camera to get an oxygen saturation reading, it will be the same as putting their bedsheet or the wall before the camera -- utterly useless. Any app which uses a camera and a flash as a measuring apparatus is unreliable."

Some of these applications claim that one can install the application and measure the oxygen level daily in this COVID-19 time. These fake applications ask users to press the index finger on the rear camera to measure the oxygen level through the application. Rather these applications are trying to gather biometric data of an individual.

On several occasions, medical experts have claimed that oxygen measuring devices like oximeters use infrared technology which is not present in an ordinary phone. It is completely a different medical device.

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