That’s a story you’ll probably be hearing about everywhere very soon. A vulnerability in Pixel smartphones that has now been patched could cause years-old screenshots to reveal unsightly details.
The short form: This vulnerability has existed since Android 10 and was patched with the current March patch. Imagine that you take a screenshot with the Pixel smartphone. You crop the screenshot in the pixel editor and only send the section directly. Stupid now that it is possible to make what was cut visible again, even with old screenshots. Check out the video in the following tweet:
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Simon Aarons and David Buchanan have recorded the technical details here if you want to find out more about the technical background. The reason was an API change by Google.
If you still have an older screenshot that has already been cropped with the standard markup tool, you can upload it here in unmodified PNG format. The result should be what you previously made “invisible” by cropping. If you don’t have an edited pixel screenshot handy but want to try it, you can find an example file here. The screenshot comes from the current discussion on Reddit.
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