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Comment by keketi | Hacker News Reader

Modify their apps to not request microphone permission.

Apparently people think there's a secret backdoor that lets an iPhone app record audio without turning the status bar red. You could deny mic permission and people would still think it's the secret backdoor.

There was a backdoor that let the Uber iPhone app record the screen invisibly from the background that went unnoticed for years.

Well no, Apple (in an unprecedented move), granted the Uber app the com.apple.private.allow-explicit-graphics-priority entitlement.

    "Apple gave us this permission because early versions of Apple Watch
    were unable to adequately handle the level of map rendering in the Uber
    app," an Uber representative, Melanie Ensign, told Business Insider.
    "Subsequent updates to Apple Watch and our app removed this dependency,
    and we're working with Apple to remove the API completely."

Uber was doing other sneaky stuff to read the devices serial number (or other unique identifiers) and evade Apple's countermeasures, but that's seperate from this.

What is the meaningful difference, in the context of tedunangst's post, between an entitlement that allows surreptitious recording of video and a backdoor that allows surreptitious recording of audio?

I'm 95% sure that there will be an entitlement for recording audio without showing the red mic bar (look at the Phone app), but it won't be a public one. There is no way for a third party app to get past app review with a custom entitlement without explicit permission from Apple. I'd be very surprised if it even passed automated review when the app was uploaded.

Uber's entitlement was always 'public'. Facebook doesn't hold any private entitlements that would allow it to record audio in the background without notifying the user.

Recording audio from an iOS app does not turn the status bar red, FYI.

It does for me while outside the app; tested with FaceTime (Built-in), Voice Recording (Built-in, recording not streaming), Snapchat, and Discord.

Inside the app I believe they can record whenever, without the banner appearing.

It does if the application isn't running in the foreground.

Facebook doesnt request microphone access on iOS.

https://imgur.com/a/ifaiT

Edit: Actually, FB will ask for microphone permission if try to record a video. Based on every other app that records video also prompts for permission to record using the microphone, I'm lead to believe the microphone permission is required on iOS if you want to record video.

FB Messenger does not prompt for Microphone until you record a video or voice memo.

> https://imgur.com/a/ifaiT

I can see "Messenger" and "Instagram" with access to microphone.

Those apps have voice and video features, so it makes sense that they'd request microphone access. (And iOS lets you disable those specific features if you want.)

iOS also shows an indicator if an app is using the microphone. This is true even for built-in Apple apps like Voice Memos. There's no way to surreptitiously record.

This indicator only shows while the app using the mic is in the background.

The banner won’t show if the app using the mic is in the foreground.

Instagram can record video posts and Messenger can make video calls, both requiring microphone access. In either case the recording is obvious with a red bar for microphone access in the background, like all other iOS apps.

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