Samsung plans new privacy display to prevent ‘shoulder surfing’ on Galaxy phones

Samsung Galaxy Smartphone New Privacy Features: The South Korean tech giant Samsung said it will soon introduce a new layer of privacy for its Galaxy smartphones, allowing users to protect the information displayed on their screens from “shoulder surfing” in public places. With this new feature, users will not need to apply any external privacy film to the phone.

With this new feature, users will “have the space to check your messages or enter a password on a packed commute without thinking twice about who might be watching,” said the company in the release.

Since not everyone needs the same level of privacy, the feature offers multiple levels of customisation, according to Samsung. This allows users to control visibility for specific apps or activities, such as viewing notifications or entering passwords. And instead of applying a blanket privacy filter across the entire device, users can fine-tune the settings according to their needs or disable the feature altogether.

“You can also choose to protect specific parts of your experience, such as notification pop-ups. It’s a tailored approach that you can fine-tune or switch off entirely, rather than a blanket one,” the company said in a release.

The company said the technology is the result of more than five years of development, testing and refinement. The company’s engineers studied how users interact with their phones, what types of information they consider private and how privacy measures can be integrated into everyday use without disrupting the user experience.

The result, Samsung said, is a combination of hardware and software that provides security while remaining uninterrupted.

South Korean tech giant described the feature as pixel-level privacy protection, based on its comprehensive mobile security framework. It also includes Samsung Knox, which has been providing device-level security for Galaxy smartphones for over a decade. This new privacy display is designed to complement existing security measures like Knox Vault and Knox Matrix.

Samsung said in the release that the feature will be available in upcoming Galaxy devices and is expected to be introduced with the company’s next flagship smartphone, which is widely expected to be launched early next year.

The wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co. said the SmartPower HDR technology allows laptop users to enable high dynamic range (HDR) mode, which can reduce power consumption by up to 22 per cent compared with previous OLED displays.

The HDR technology allows displays to deliver vivid images through brightness optimisation, IANS said, citing Yonhap news agency reports.