Apple’s new iOS 26 update has brought tighter privacy controls, a cleaner system core, and what seems like a step forward for user protection. But beneath those improvements, digital investigators have discovered something worrying — the update quietly removes the system traces they’ve long used to spot signs of Pegasus spyware.
For years, security researchers relied on iPhone diagnostic logs to detect infections from Pegasus, a powerful surveillance tool made by Israel’s NSO Group. These logs, which recorded background network traffic and system behavior, often held the only clues that a phone had been hacked. After updating to iOS 26, those trails are gone.
Researchers say Apple’s new system design encrypts or wipes the low-level data they depended on, effectively locking investigators out. While the change seems intended to strengthen user privacy, it also means that once a phone is infected, it’s now almost impossible to prove.
Apple hasn’t publicly addressed this specific issue, but privacy experts suggest the company’s intention was to reduce the amount of information that could be harvested by attackers. Ironically, that same effort now makes it harder for watchdog groups to identify real-world surveillance campaigns — especially in countries where Pegasus has been used to target journalists, activists, and opposition leaders.
“It’s like sealing off the crime scene before the detectives can even arrive,” one digital forensics analyst told The Guardian. “Apple’s privacy walls are stronger, but they also hide the evidence.”
The Pegasus spyware, notorious for exploiting zero-click vulnerabilities, has been one of the most advanced forms of mobile surveillance ever discovered. Governments have used it to quietly monitor iPhones without the user ever noticing — no messages clicked, no apps opened, no warnings.
With iOS 26, Apple may have won another round in its battle for privacy, but the cost is that the world loses a key window into how surveillance works. The line between privacy and transparency has never been this thin.