New Apple iPhone Mirroring Feature Raises Privacy Concerns for Employees

A significant privacy bug in Apple’s new iPhone Mirroring feature, introduced with iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia 15, is raising serious concerns among employees and employers.

Designed to provide a seamless experience by allowing users to control their iPhone from a Mac, the feature is unintentionally exposing personal apps and data to corporate IT systems, according to cybersecurity firm Sevco.

The iPhone Mirroring feature allows users to wirelessly interact with their iPhone’s apps and notifications directly from their Mac, as long as both devices are signed in with the same Apple ID.

The risk

While this adds convenience for users working across devices, it also introduces unintended privacy risks.

If employees use this feature on company-issued Macs, their personal applications could become part of the company’s software inventory. This means corporate IT systems may inadvertently collect sensitive personal information.

When personal iPhones are mirrored on corporate Macs, macOS’s Spotlight search tool indexes and catalogs personal iOS apps as if they were installed on the Mac itself.

This includes not just the app names but also metadata like app versions, dates, and even icons. For employees, this could expose highly personal information, including apps related to VPN usage, dating, or health conditions.

Such exposure could have serious implications, especially for individuals in regions where personal privacy is heavily regulated or restricted.

Privacy implications

The privacy implications for businesses are equally concerning. If companies collect this data without knowing, they could be in violation of privacy regulations, such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), or other regional privacy laws.

This opens companies up to potential litigation and enforcement actions by regulatory bodies.

For employees, this unwanted data collection could risk revealing aspects of their personal lives to their employer—details they would prefer to keep private.

Avoiding a privacy breach

Apple has acknowledged the bug and is currently working on a fix. A software update to address the issue is expected in the near future.

Until then, cybersecurity experts are advising employees not to use the iPhone Mirroring feature on work devices.

Companies are also encouraged to notify their employees about the potential risk and take immediate steps to identify and remove any personal data that may have already been collected by their IT systems.

In the meantime, companies should work with their software inventory vendors to mitigate the risk and ensure no further data is collected until the patch is released. This could involve updating internal policies or temporarily disabling certain features on corporate Macs that might facilitate the data collection.

Wrapping up

Although the privacy risks for individual users might be minimal, especially for those who keep personal and work devices separate, the bug creates a larger problem for employers.

Employers now face the challenge of distinguishing between personal and corporate software on employee devices, adding unnecessary complexity to IT management and increasing their legal exposure.

While Apple works on a fix, awareness and caution are the best tools for both employees and employers in protecting personal privacy and staying compliant with data protection laws.