Apple talked about the main specs and features of the iPhone 16 series during Monday’s big event, but it didn’t have time to go over everything. For example, all iPhone 16 models support Wi-Fi 7, and the non-Pro variants are lighter than their predecessors. Also, all iPhone 16 versions support 45W USB-C wired charging speeds.
Then there’s a privacy improvement coming to the iPhone 16 that’s so good you’ll never even know it’s there, protecting you from potential attackers. It’s a feature only the M4 chip in the 2024 iPad Pro tablets could offer until now, but Apple quietly brought it to the iPhone 16’s A18 chips.
It’s called Secure Exclave, and it ensures that hackers can’t spy on you by quietly accessing the phone’s camera and microphone.
The Secure Exclave feature was first discovered in early June by developer Guilherme Rambo:
Fun fact about the M4 iPad Pro: it’s the first device to support and use Apple’s new Secure Indicator Light (SIL) mechanism. When using the microphone or camera, the corresponding indicator dot is effectively rendered in hardware, making it a lot less likely that any malware or user space app would be able to access those sensors without the user’s knowledge.
Apple introduced the camera and microphone indicators in 2020 in iOS 14. When you’re using an app that can access the camera and microphone, you’ll see orange and green dots appear on the screen at the top. These visual indicators remind you that an app is using your mic or camera.
The feature is controlled by software on older iPhones. In theory, an attack on iOS might allow a hacker to disable the lights so they can quietly access the camera and microphone. It’s unclear if such attacks are possible, though I’m sure hackers would certainly try to do it.
It’s not just about malicious actors. The light indicators also ensure that iPhone apps only have access to the camera and microphone if they’re supposed to. A light showing up should at least make you investigate the matter. Google enabled the same functionality on Android after Apple introduced it on iPhones and iPads.
Fast-forward to the iPhone 16 series, all four phones come with new A18 chips. The iPhone 16 and 16 Plus get the regular A18, while the Pro models have an even better variant, the A18 Pro.
Both of them feature the same Secure Indicator Light feature. 9to5Mac found evidence in iOS 18 that the Secure Exclave feature with the SIL mechanism is present in both A18 chips.
That means all four iPhone 16 models should be even better at protecting your privacy than the older generation. It should be incredibly difficult for an app or attacker to access your microphone or camera without those lights turning on.
It might seem minor, but we need to see this kind of privacy upgrade in more electronics.
