Hidden fields/links/contacts in Apple’s Contacts App via “LINK”

Question

Hidden fields/links/contacts in Apple’s Contacts App via “LINK”

Subject: Hidden fields, hidden contacts, hidden links in Apple’s ‘Contacts App’ using the “LINK” function

I need some solid clarification on the underlying PURPOSE of “linking” contacts on an iPhone. AND on how to disarm the LINK function entirely.

WHY I NEED SOME ANSWERS:

About a week ago I discovered 2 instances of deeply linked contacts on my iPhone. I didn’t link either one. I didn’t know linking existed until about a week ago.

One contact I barely know—she used to be a downstairs neighbor. Pure chance allowed me to discover that her contact info included a link to someone or something. Out of curiosity, I tapped on the “linked contact” field and was brought to a completely blank screen except for a red “delete” option at the bottom right corner of the screen. Other than that, the screen was a perfect blank. I wanted to see what I was about to delete before I deleted it, so I started tapping all over the screen, waiting for something to happen. It did—a red check appeared around the center of the blank screen, but whatever was next to it remained hidden. I realized that this link had to have been been coded by someone in order remain invisible to me. I’d simply managed to tap on the nvisible interactive field on my blank screen which lit it up with a red check mark. Immediately a system alert appeared asking me to confirm the delete if something I couldn’t even see. I realized that the hidden link could be anything—a contact name, a telephone number, even a website. So I took a screenshot and clicked delete. I thought that was the end of it.

A few days later, I decided to clean up my contacts since that strange hidden link was playing on my mind. So I’m on a roll deleting old, rarely used contacts when I come across an old doctor I haven’t seen in quite a while and never planned to see again—our Doctor/Patient relationship ended badly because she was essentially just too weird for words and also because she worked out of a hospital that’s a known scam “.org” outfit with questionable reputation.

I saw no reason to retain her contact information, and clicked “delete.” A system message popped up asking me if I was sure I wanted to delete this contact since I would not be deleting the entire contact. Wha???

i took a screenshot, then I tapped ‘delete’ again. A more detailed system alert popped up informing me that I would not be deleting this entire contact as there were four more contacts in iCloud linked to this one—and all five contacts were defined as one single contact, but this former doctor was the only one visible to me. and I would not be able to delete the other four because they are read-only!

That also had to be coded.

I don’t code. I thought only Apple would be allowed to tailor-code an iPhone 😳

So I need some clarity on how someone else could be tampering with my contacts. AND IT’S STILL UNCLEAR to me why I (or anyone else) would even want to link one contact to another contact with no apparent benefit to the iPhone owner.

Link appears have one purpose—surveillance of some sort. An app that allows the creation of HIDDEN fields, HIDDEN links and HIDDEN contacts that remain undetectable, inaccessible, and permanently defined on a person’s private iPhone is there for on e reason only. Is is on my iPhone for medical research? Law enforcement? Something even more frightening?

I have not agreed to participate in any medical research studies. I’ve not signed any confidentiality waivers of any sort. I’ve not broken any laws. And I’m sure as heck not a terrorist, unless you count the seagulls who park themselves and their noise in my back yard.

To be clear, I am talking about my personal and private iPhone that I alone paid for, I alone use, and I alone maintain. It is not a company phone or shared in any sense. It is supposed to be utterly private and mine alone.

Because, frankly, this discovery has me kinda scared. I don’t

Sincere thanks in advance for any clarification by any of the more ethically-minded techies out there’s .

iPhone 8

Posted on Dec 20, 2020 11:48 PM

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Answer 1

Camelot

Level 9

58,311 points

Dec 21, 2020 2:07 PM in response to HoneyHoneyHoney

First, take a deep breath. It's likely not as nefarious as you think it might be.

Contacts.app has the ability to unify directories from multiple places - you might have your own list of contacts that you've entered directly on your phone, plus maybe a corporate directory you've configured, and make you allowed Facebook integration etc.

'Linked contacts' are simply contacts that appear in multiple directories that the OS has identified as being the same person (through some heuristics based on name, phone number, email address, etc.).

So what it's basically telling you is that deleting a person from your local contacts list might not delete them entirely since they still exist in your Facebook contacts/friends list, or some other associated directory.

Now, granted, the user interface for this sounds broken, but you didn't post the screenshots, so it's impossible to tell from your description if there's more to it, but I'm pretty sure that's the nutshell of what you're seeing.

I mean, think about it - if it was some nefarious/malicious system that was creating these hidden links, don't you think they'd also go out of their way to hide any alert when you tried to delete an account?

I suggest you just take a look at your contacts and see where people appear multiple times. And delete the contacts if there's no reason to keep them.

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Answer 2

Dec 24, 2020 3:26 PM in response to Camelot

Thanks for you thoughtful explanation, I really appreciate the time you spent on it. However ...

a) I don’t belong to Facebook, or any other social media platform. And I do not have access to any corporate directory that I may have tried to merge with my private, personal contacts .

b). I did not create those links. I had no clue links could even be made until I discovered those two in my personal contacts (mentioned in my initial question).

I certainly don’t want to secretly link two different contacts on my phone. That’s basically bcc’ing another person. Why would I want to bcc someone every time I text one of my contacts

c) with regard to your last thought re: “think about it...”. my response is that whoever linked the contacts on my phone could not alter my system or the Contacts app itself—because it’s proprietary, it belongs to Apple. That’s why the alerts and the interactive fields showed uo—Apple designed the App with a function that could be used at the iPhone owner’s option. But Apple did nit give away rights to irrational app. That cannot be tampered with. I guess whoever did this did not realize that I, as the owner, would get these systems alerts when I tried to delete those 2 contacts—system alerts and interactive fields can’t get messed with because they’re integral ti Apple’s Contacts App itself. Clearly, names, numbers, websites, portals, etc. are NIT part of the app. So they can be hidden by someone who knows how. Do you know how? Or why anyone would want to hide a link like you see in the screenshot below?

As you can see, there is nothing visible next to the check mark in the middle of the page. The field is not visible—but there is definitely something next to the checkmark or the check mark wouldn’t be there—ir could be a name, a telno, a website, a portal, etc. That’s outright freaky.

Because nothing should be hidden from me on my own personal phone. And I don’t know how to hide anything on my phone. Even more to the point, would I want to? It’s MY phone.

Thanks again. I hope you continue to help me figure this out. Any other ideas?

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Hidden fields/links/contacts in Apple’s Contacts App via “LINK”

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