Truth behind the Battery and Chip video that’s going viral

Nitish ChandanCyber Security

Video_ScreenshotA video has recently gone viral about Samsung’s “secret chip” that breaches your privacy. It allegedly is stuck on the battery and it accesses your private videos and pictures and dumps them on to Samsung Servers. Preachers of this weird wild theory have also brought some other vendors into the limelight by saying that these secret chips upload the data even without the user getting to know about it. If Non techies believe it, it is justified to an extent I guess but the irony is that even people majoring in Technology are sharing this video. The certification and standardization authorities are definitely sane enough to not let a vendor ship devices with a “chip” that breaches users’ privacy.

Towards the end of the video, it is urged that people do the same pomp and show and spread the word. Also that they open their Samsung mobiles, tear down the battery and remove this “chip”.

What is this chip really?

Img Source: iFixit

Img Source: iFixit

It is an NFC (Near Field Communication) antenna that is built into the battery to enable data transfer on a tap to turn on there NFC enabled devices. I’m not highlighting the details too much, if you like to read, search the Internet about NFC and know more. What I want to mention here is the fact that all the users who have been doing this exercise, please know that that you are actually tearing apart the NFC chip.
We request you to not share the video anywhere. Please spread the word about the reality of this video wherever you can.

If you’re aware, its great! But there are those who are not.