Woman uncovers phones taking ‘micro photographs’ after her Ring camera picks up creepy flashes

We’ve long suspected that our phones are spying on all of us. In fact, it’s hardly even a conspiracy theory anymore, it’s just something that’s widely accepted regardless of whether it’s true or not. However, one woman on TikTok believes that she has irrefutable evidence from her Ring camera that proves that our phones are taking “micro photographs” of us at all times.

TikToker “@lynzifer0” shared footage from her living room Ring camera which shows her chilling while on her phone. The camera seems able to pick up light which is invisible to the naked eye and it picks up something very interesting about the woman’s phone. As she sits there, spinning something known as a “Flow star,” intermittent flashes can be seen coming from the phone she’s holding in the other hand.

Lynzifer0 claims that the light flash is her phone taking “micro photographs” of her. The video plays into the conspiracy theories that suggest our phones are spying on us at all times. But is this really what is happening? Should we throw away our smart phones and return to the classic flip mobiles of the early 2000s?

TikTok isn’t convinced

We’ve likely all had situations before in which we’ve talked about something only to have an ad pop up on your phone for that exact thing later that day, almost like the phone was listening. While it may seem like our phones are spying on us, that isn’t really the case. Or at least there’s no proof that is the case.

The same goes for the supposed photographs the Ring camera apparently showed lynzifer0’s phone taking. Commenters on TikTok were quick to come forward with more likely theories as to why the phone could be seen flashing in the video. “It’s infrared that’s why u can’t see it. It’s using lidar to scan for your face.” wrote one person, “It’s not taking a photo. It’s face tracking to know if it should keep the screen on or go to sleep,” added another. However, the original poster was not convinced, claiming, “Those flashes make you tired.”

While there was a lot of back-and-forth between the people of TikTok, Occam’s razor tells us the simplest explanation is often the most likely. Most seem to agree that the flashes most likely come from the phone’s LiDAR system which is simply scanning the user’s face in order to know whether to go to sleep.

While it’s not out of the question that our phone devices are spying on us, this seems to simply be an example of a regular feature which we normally wouldn’t even notice, being captured on camera.