from Hacker News

Tell HN: iPhone mirroring on iOS/macOS breaks screenshot protection on all apps

by mintone on 9/18/24, 11:51 AM with 8 comments

I appreciate that this is somewhat obvious on reflection, but I am surprised that no one is talking about it given that it breaks security/privacy flows for major apps (obviously a photo of the screen was always a risk)

  • by colesantiago on 9/18/24, 12:26 PM

    It makes apps like Snapchat, Telegram and other apps that detect and prevent / block screenshots useless now.

    I heard that Apple knows about this issue (via Feedback Assistant) and their development team said they won’t fix it.

  • by joshstrange on 9/19/24, 11:37 AM

    This is always a very interesting topic for me. On one hand, I would like apps to be able to enforce rules like “no screenshots” or at a minimum “screenshot detection”. On the other hand, I want my phone to do what I ask you to do and not be forced to follow arbitrary rules.

    Example: I don’t want someone to screenshot my Snapchat message but I don’t want my bank to prevent me from screenshotting the app because of “security” (aka security theater).

    I don’t know how you make those two concepts work together.

    One random thought that I just had is that when an app uses DRM it just show a black screen when you screenshot. I wonder if could implement that for things like Snapchat to get the same protections.

  • by impish9208 on 9/18/24, 12:13 PM

    Hi, which app did you see this on? WhatsApp is a big one that comes to mind.

  • by schwartzworld on 9/24/24, 12:30 AM

    Google has had mirroring in the form of Casting for like a decade.

  • by erkkonet on 9/19/24, 6:54 AM

    Couldn't you already do that with a USB-C HDMI cable? Stream the screen and record it.

  • by dmvjs on 9/20/24, 12:23 PM

    screenshot protection is a lie