[wycy]

If I were Facebook and I were trying to surreptitiously record users via the microphone, I think I would do it by using lower-level hardware APIs rather than high-level Cocoa APIs.

Disclaimer: I don't really know a) if there is some other way to interface with the mic or b) what I'm talking about in general.

[mattnewton]

I am not an expert in this at all, but I would think they would need special permission from apple; many of these undocumented APIs get your app auto rejected.

[dannyw]

Apple is known for giving large apps (eg Uber and their whole screen recording, even outside of the app) special, hidden entitlements though.

[mattnewton]

My impression was that involved a great deal of trust, and if they breached that trust Apple wouldn’t hesitate to smite them. Recording people’s mic seems like it’s pretty harmful to the iPhone brand... But you are right, this could be happening today, and Apple is giving them too much trust, and the smite-ing is yet to come.

[notyourwork]

Am I the only one who finds this completely trust breaking?

[wizardforhire]

Not disagreeing but this is this the hook... facecrook on one hand, you would think would want to save face from a pr perspective. However, on the other they have huge economic incentives to not give af. Given their track record we as individuals assume the best at our own peril.