I have been trying to find an independent research, breakdown and review of Tensor SoCs in terms of possible security implications. But have found almost nothing. If anyone has such information, would you please kindly share links with the rest of us?
As far as my understanding goes OS that runs on the chip is superior to any other end user OS, like GrapheneOS for instance. And as such it may be/is capable of running instructions that are otherwise undetectable/out of reach of any end user OS. It may be using methods of communications that are not internet based (like mesh network analogy of AirTag, Tile etc.) that have not been reported on or further researched, allowing them to silently call HQ (with device ID and more) regardless of whether the phone is on or off, since battery is not removable and therefore there is always some residual power supply present (even at 0℅). I'd imagine that any such communications can not be detected by regular OS and are run in exclusive privileged memory inaccessible to anything else. I'd also imagine that it's cherry picking its data during normal use and if it does report, it does it when the device is not in use but not necessarily and/or it could be doing it in various time intervals to prevent detectability.
I have to add that I have no formal IT education but subjects of this kind deeply interest me since everybody may be affected. Let's not forget that any developer may (or may not) include features that are not publicly announced and are only known to them.
I am not really looking to find any kind of answer, but perhaps those of you who are more adept could delve into things further and thanks to your research we might learn something new.