Watch Out! Apple might be spying on you through your iPhone

This week the company revealed that because of the old techniques that were not publicized by Apple iPhone employees, personal data such as photos, messages, contact lists can be accessed through our iPhones. These techniques could be used by law enforcement companies or other people who have access to these computers using these devices, said Apple’s security expert.

Jonathon Zdziarski, a researcher, said in a conference this week that a lot of data is taken for services that Apple says help the engineers. He also told in the conference that iPhone users are not alerted that these services are in progress and there is no way to disable them. The users also do not have any idea how to block connections in the future or which computers have been given access.

Zdziarski said in a video presentation on Friday that the only way to get rid of these was by completely wiping off data from your phone. In the video he showed all the data he extracted through a computer with access from an unlocked phone.

As more people found out about this presentation at the Hackers on Planet Earth conference, they have started considering this as evidence that Apple may be using this software to provide information to the National Security Agency.

Apple has denied rumors about providing any such data to intelligence agencies.

Apple said that iPhone’s operating software does not give away any data; it only uses information that is required for troubleshooting. They also said that the user may have previously given access to the computer before it could use the diagnostic data.

Zdziarski and others spoke with the company and asked for some changes to the programs in the future. Zdziarski said that these services were used for spying but he said that this enables them to have access to more information than it was needed.

According to Rich Mogull who is a security industry analyst, the work of Zdziarski was given more hype than needed but the information was technically accurate. Mogull said that they are getting access to more information than they should and this could only happen if they compromise security.

He also agreed with Zdziarski that law enforcement companies could use them when targeted computers are hacked or reached through their employers. Apple did not reply immediately when they were asked whether they used such techniques to fulfill requests by law enforcement companies.

Apple’s phones are considered more secure as compared to phones with Android operating system because Google does not directly send software fixes to those devices. This clearly means that if you are looking for security Android devices are becoming increasingly more appealing. Unless Apple stops its iPhone spy maneuvers, this trend would persist.