I’m not smart enough to understand kernels, or how memory works at an operating system level, but does this have anything to do with Apple‘s recent announcement that all unallocated memory will be zeroed out?
I’ve been wondering, albeit naïvely, if TikTok and Facebook have been scraping unallocated memory allocations to achieve “without achieving” listening in on our microphones and cameras.
Siri is always listening / camera sometimes pops up before accessing photos and the unallocated recordings / visuals could still be there? It could explain the uncanny awareness and specificity of their ads / algos.
Just in case the downvotes didn't answer your question: no. Memory was already zeroed out before it crossed process boundaries. Apple's recent change is about zeroing it out even before it's reused within a process. (Freeing memory doesn't always give it back to the operating system; the userland allocator usually keeps a list of free blocks to be reused quickly.)
Therefore, the attack you are describing doesn't work.
I’ve been wondering, albeit naïvely, if TikTok and Facebook have been scraping unallocated memory allocations to achieve “without achieving” listening in on our microphones and cameras. Siri is always listening / camera sometimes pops up before accessing photos and the unallocated recordings / visuals could still be there? It could explain the uncanny awareness and specificity of their ads / algos.