Network Engineer. Tweets are my own. No political views expressed.
Richland, WA
Joined February 2012
- Tweets3.2K
- Following263
- Followers174
- Likes7.4K
Brian retweeted
BREAKING: Claude Code found 14,219 photos of my face on my Android that I never took. Phone was secretly taking them almost every time I picked it up. Even when I was just lying in bed. Even at home.
Not screenshots. Real frames from the front camera. On the train. In the car. At home. When I just grabbed it to check the time.
They were just sitting in a system cache. Timestamps and GPS on them. Nothing in Gallery. Nothing in Recently Deleted.
Plugged the phone into my laptop, made a full backup, told Claude Code to look for any front-camera files that weren’t in my photos. It pulled /data/system/users/0/faceunlock/cache and another folder inside Google Play Services. Over 14 thousand files. Normal ones and infrared from Face Unlock. Every single one had time and location.
Started scrolling. Almost everything from the last 15 months. Then I saw a file created 2 seconds ago. I was still looking at the folder. Phone kept taking photos while I was reading this.
Google and the phone makers say Face Unlock turns everything into a mathematical model and deletes the image right away. On this phone the raw frames were just sitting there. Some of the processes writing to that folder were from system diagnostics. Couple of old apps that still had camera permission could also get in.
Turned off diagnostics, revoked camera access from everything that doesn’t need it, cleared the cache. But how many of these frames already went somewhere else, I don’t know.
If you want to check yours, plug it in, make a full backup or use ADB, and ask Claude to look for front-camera files outside your Gallery. Path above is where mine were.
Claude Code found 145,763 photos I permanently deleted from my iPhone.
Three years of deleted photos and videos still sitting in a hidden cache. Any app with file access can read them.
I plugged my iPhone into my MacBook to run a backup. Claude Code was doing the security audit from my last post and flagged a directory I wasn't even looking for.
PhotoData/Thumbnails. Over 146,000 files. Photos, videos, screenshots. Every single one was something I deleted.
Photos from 2023, 2024 and 2025. The ones I deleted the second after taking them. The ones I cleared from Recently Deleted. The ones I deleted three separate times because I wanted to be sure they were gone. All still there.
Passport photo I took for a visa application in 2023.
Screenshots of my bank app with full account numbers visible.
Private photos I sent someone and immediately deleted after a breakup.
Screenshot of my crypto seed phrase I took temporarily in 2022.
Photo of my ID and credit card I took to remember the numbers and deleted 5 seconds later.
Screenshots of my ex's private Instagram stories I saved and permanently deleted in 2023.
Some were full resolution. All organized by date going back to 2021.
When you delete a photo on iPhone, iOS removes it from your camera roll and Recently Deleted. It keeps a compressed copy in a Spotlight search index cache so your phone can find things when you search. Apple never clears it. Not after 30 days. Not after a year. Never.
They told you it was permanently deleted. It wasn't.
I checked which apps on my phone had Files and Folders access. 23 apps. Weather apps. QR code scanners. PDF readers. A flashlight app I downloaded in 2022. Any one of them could have been reading every photo I ever deleted this entire time.
Went from 23 apps to 3 in about two minutes.
Full step by step below. Takes 2 minutes. Save it so you don't lose it and send it to anyone with an iPhone.
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
The video is an old, misappropriated clip from 2023, and the accompanying claims are fabricated.
x.com/HarshithLucky3…
Brian retweeted
Wait… the Seattle police chief lives in Chicago and isn’t in Seattle for a month?! That’s a big gig with big pay.
Brian retweeted
A disturbing party video is sparking outrage after a Black woman’s repeated pleas were ignored and she was allegedly grabbed and thrown into a pool by two white men. atlantablackstar.com/2026/07…
Brian retweeted
JUST IN: In a recording, Tyler Robinson's trans lover, Lance Twiggs, says Robinson was acting "erratically" after allegedly killing Charlie Kirk.
In the bombshell video, Twiggs said Robinson told him that he "wishes he hadn't done it."
"I just asked him in person if what he said was true the night before, and he said it was... He started crying a little bit and said he wishes he hadn't done it..."
"And then eventually [Robinson] said that he would talk to his parents or turn himself over."
Brian retweeted
Queers for Palestine hasn’t said a word about this.
Nor has a single human rights organization.
Weird.
Brian retweeted
While it’s all been rather fun, I do hope @hughlaurie takes the time to read my @unherd article (I’m sure he can stretch to a subscription).
Because while his witty riposte was genuinely amusing, one point I make in the piece is that it was shared with his 1.2 million followers on X. I have around 38,000.
That creates something of an imbalance - particularly given that the responses to my original post were overwhelmingly warm-hearted and affectionate towards the show.
The result has been some fairly horrific trolling. It turns out House fans are even more abusive than trans activists (and that’s saying something).
I have enough experience of the media to take it on the chin, as the saying goes. But someone without my background might have found the experience far more distressing.
Link below 👇
Brian retweeted
I’m sorry if people have been having a go at you because of my tweet. Not at all the plan. I was very slightly drunk and already upset about something that had nothing to do with you. If it’s any comfort, I got it in the neck too. I’m a thin-skinned twat, apparently, even though it wasn’t my skin. I was sticking up for the writers who I adored. Obviously I shouldn’t have cited Bach/Kahlo/Moore - asking for trouble - and would have done better to go for the 10,000 blues songs written around the same 12 bar chord structure. I’ve listened to most of them and will keep doing so. Because we love what we love.
Brian retweeted
California made it illegal for any election in the state to require ID. This is nuts.
Brian retweeted
✨ Back after ages! Big shoutout to my animal lover fam 🐶💕 Hope you’re all doing well!🥰🤗
#AnimalLover #PetLover #AnimalFam #NewProfilePic
