Well, inadvertently it would seem. Data forensics wonk, Jonathan Zdziarski, indicated that when the iPhone does that cool fade out, when you switch applications, it takes a screen shot. No, there are no black helicopters here. This is apparently how the effect is achieved.
From Wired:
The phone presumably deletes the image after you close the application. But anyone who understands data is aware that in most cases, deletion does not permanently remove files from a storage device. Therefore, forensics experts have used this security flaw to successfully nab criminals who have been accused of rape, murder or drug deals, Zdziarski said.
“There’s no way to prevent it,” Zdziarski said during the webcast. “I’m kind of divided on it. I hope Apple fixes it because it’s a significant privacy leak, but at the same time it’s been useful for investigating criminals.”
I imagine it has the potential for being a privacy issue. In all fairness though, if someone already has access to your phone you’re pretty much fubar anyway.
[tags]Forensics, Data Forensics, iPhone[/tags]
