The statement is misleading.

A TikTok video captioned with “Just found out iPhones take front camera pictures of your face every 3-5 seconds” went viral and received more than 43.7K likes:

The iPhones in the video “flashed” several times without the owners’ knowledge, making some viewers believe that iPhone’s front camera can take pictures of the user’s face every few seconds. Others believe the video proves that they are under surveillance when using iPhones. Is it true?

Not exactly. As USA Today reported, Apple spokesman Alex Kirschner has already explained that the phenomenon shown in the TikTok video was actually an Apple’s camera technology called TrueDepth camera.

According to Apple, TrueDepth camera is designed to check if users are using the device. It “captures face data by projecting and analyzing more than 30,000 invisible dots to create a map of your face while also taking an infrared image.” By enabling “attention awareness features,” TrueDepth camera can dim the screen brightness, lower the volume, and even turn off the screen when it detects the user is not using the device.

Apple also emphasized that your “Face ID data doesn’t leave your device and is never backed up to iCloud or anywhere else.” That is, no photos are taken; the infrared lights spotted in the TikTok video are just scanning to see if you are still using the iPhone.