Windows 11 Snipping Tool has a privacy issue: learn more

Windows PCs have this useful cropping tool, which is an alternative way to capture specific parts of images instead of screenshots. Windows 11 also got the tool, but this week Windows 11 PC users got a worrying update about the privacy of this tool.

Security experts have discovered a bug that allows people to essentially harvest data from images taken with a snipping tool. The same problem has been observed in the marking tool of Google Pixel, but now Windows 11 users also need to be careful about this error.

The security folks also developed a screenshot recovery tool to prove that the privacy issue is legitimate. Experts call the bug “acropalypse”, who believe that its mode of operation is a very complex, but quite effective way of extracting traces from a recorded image.

So what exactly is the problem with this bug? Experts say that when you open a file in a shredding tool on a Windows 11 PC and overwrite an existing file, you’ll still see taxes on the data left behind, which anyone with the technical know-how can recover.

This error is usually not a cause for concern, but there are cases where people try to take pictures with Snip tool that contain some personal information. When you overwrite a screenshot, the present algorithm of the file system can retail some data of the data of old files in the same storage block of the drive, and in such cases, bad actors can exploit the error to steal data and eventually steal money from people who have such details. And the user might not even be aware of the fact that he had those details in his system.

However, the bug does not allow a hacker to access the entire image, which could ease user concerns. Microsoft has been notified of the bug, and BleepingComputer has quoted the company as saying it is aware of the issue and is investigating. It will take the necessary steps to protect its customers, the company added.

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