[jruohonen]

I might be wrong; it was merely speculated in the article due to the fact that Qualcomm chips are used also in Apple smartphones. An audit would be needed.

[circuit10]

> Qualcomm chips are used also in Apple smartphones

The main SoC definitely isn’t, Apple design their own SoCs, are you talking about some other chip?

[stacktrust]

5G modem.

[circuit10]

I thought it might be something like that, but in this case isn’t it the main SOC doing it?

[dagmx]

The article authors continuously conflate the SoC with the OS distro.

it’s almost certainly part of the distro since they claim you can block it. If it was the chipset, you wouldn’t be able to.