Security researchers say many apps are taking advantage of iPhone notifications to bypass privacy protections.
According to Gizmodo, security researchers have just discovered a vulnerability that allows iPhone applications to collect user data through notifications, regardless of whether security settings have been enabled. This raises concerns about privacy on the iOS operating system and calls into question Apple’s “data on iPhone, saved on iPhone” commitment.
According to experts from Mysk Inc., a software development company, many popular applications such as Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, Twitter, and countless others are using notifications to ‘circumvent’ data collection rules. Even when users close apps, they can still send device data to the server through notifications.
Researchers discovered these apps were collecting data such as IP address, phone reboot time, free memory space, and many other details. By combining this information, companies can identify users with high accuracy.
Mysk said this behavior is not limited to a few specific apps or developers but is a widespread problem across the iPhone ecosystem. Previously, Mysk also discovered similar vulnerabilities related to Wi-Fi security and sharing device analytics data on iPhones. It can be seen that although Apple has made many efforts to reassure users about privacy issues, these new findings show that the company’s commitment has not been fulfilled.
Companies like Facebook and LinkedIn have disputed the claim, arguing that they only collect data through notifications to send notifications more effectively, in compliance with Apple’s APIs. However, researchers say that collecting data such as phone reboot time or free memory space is not related to the notification function, suspecting the real purpose is to track users and serve advertising. Apple has not officially commented on this issue.
Overall, the findings show serious vulnerabilities in the iPhone’s security system, affecting user privacy. Apple needs to take stronger actions to address this issue and ensure transparency in data collection by applications.
In addition, users also need to pay attention to the privacy settings on the iPhone and only install applications from reputable developers.
