Software can spy on what you type in video calls by tracking your arms

By Chris Stokel-Walker

Luis Alvarez/Getty

Someone who types while on a video call may be giving away more than they realise. A computer model can work out the words that the person is typing just by tracking the movement of their shoulders and arms in the video stream.

“There are significant, oftentimes not very easily discernible shoulder movements that occur when typing,” says Murtuza Jadliwala at the University of Texas at San Antonio. “We thought if we are able to model them scientifically, we should be able to infer …