If you want privacy you either do graphene on a pixel (cake and eat it too), or linux phone (huge downgrade in usability and reliability)

Stock Android is not acceptable, it’s even worse than Apple.

About the QR code, the code itself can’t tell whether its being scanned or not. I assume the QR code is a URL to a website and the server sends you the notification. So if somebody scanned the QR code and opened the link in their browser but then closed their browser without closing the tab, each time they reopen the browser and the tab automatically refreshes it would seem like a new scan. Even if the URL itself is supposed to forward the user after the notification, some browsers screw up the forwarding process or open the forward address in a new tab, depending on the user settings.

the grass is roughly as green on the other side, android is no better for privacy unless u are willing to put in an unreasonable amount of work into it which isnt worth it for most peoples threat profile, i recommend switching passwords on everything and maybe factory resetting ur phone. Also u should switch but only because apple makes garbage products.

Are you sure you’ve NEVER shared the qr code with anyone? If so, what is it actually for? Because a qr code’s purpose is to be shared. If you’ve ever shared it before, people can have copies of it. I myself take a picture of a qr code and load it from my camera roll instead of directly opening the link from my camera, because I want to keep a copy of it.

Now if you truly haven’t shared it to anyone, then it is either a bug with whatever app, website, or mechanism you generated the qr code from and it’s alerting you; or it’s an IOS bug; with the former the more likely. Like others have said, this is absolutely not normal behavior on a non-jailbroken iphone. And to Apple’s credit, the iphone is pretty secure. This should be the order of steps before going nuclear:

• Find out if the source of the issue is the app or mechanism the QR code is using to alert you. Check if it’s a bug or it’s actually a malicious/rogue app.

• If that’s all good, clean up your phone. Check which apps have access to your camera and microphone, and disable anything you don’t need or trust. Delete apps if necessary.

• If that still doesn’t stop it, hard reset your phone.

If someone scanned that QR code, it means they have a copy. If they, or someone else then scanned it (or copied the text from it and pasted in a browser), it would function as if they scanned it.

I mean really, this is how QR codes work. It’s shorthand for text, typically used to URL’s.

Do a DFS of all (non-app-specific) settings. Disable almost everything, for the time being.

iOS has Lockdown Mode which it sounds like you could benefit from.

For the camera app, it could be as simple as accidentally swiping left on the Lock Screen even just a tiny enough amount to activate the camera, even if released before the full quick shot mode is displayed. That at least is plausible from within a pocket and is not a security concern. Other apps cannot pretend to be the camera app when accessing it.

This isn’t an iPhone problem. This doesn’t happen normally. There’s one of two things going on:

1. you jailbroke your phone/sideloaded/installed some shady app. Solution: hard reset that phone and set it up as new. Do not copy over anything, and use the phone as close to stock as possible for a bit. These notifications will stop. Then you add apps and stuff slowly until you figure out what is the offender.

2. you’re being targeted. Somebody did something nefarious and they are probably good at it. It’s not easy to get into a stock device. I find this option possible but unlikely unless you’re a VIP or you’ve REALLY pissed off an ex lover or are married to overly attached girlfriend.

*Edit

Maybe there’s a third option. Maybe the phone’s hardware is just borked somehow - a chip or sensor or something is broke. /shrug. I suppose that’s possible too.

This being displayed as “Unknown” is likely just a bug or an app you (very) recently uninstalled. And you probably opened the camera app by accidentally swiping right to left on the lock screen. Even just a slight swipe will launch the app so it’s ready when you’re done swiping.

And I’m not even sure what you’re talking about regarding your QR code.

Android is not de facto superior to iOS, nor is the opposite the case.

If you’re really that paranoid, even GrapheneOS on a Pixel shouldn’t calm you down because it also requires proprietary firmware by Google (and possibly other vendors) to run on these proprietary devices. In this case my advice would be to stop using smartphones altogether and rely on open source computers (couple of RISC-V options out there I think) for your computing needs.

Why is android superior then iOS, why, and how is it safer then iOS

It isn’t superior or safer. Whatever you did to your phone to install spyware will not project you any bette by using android.

I’m not even sure what you could have installed that would break out of the app sandbox. It’s likely to I have some device management profile installed, but even that seems unlikely. It’s also possible your phone compromised but that’s typically requires a state level attack.

I’m actually leaning towards drug use or carbon monoxide poisoning. Yeah, it is that weird and you sound that paranoid.

These things you are experiancing are not normal. A spyware may have got to your phone somehow and if you dont know how did that happen it will likely happen again with your new android phone. What I would do if I was in your place is taking the phone to apple and ask if they coukd scan it for me.

are you someone politically important? Someone in comments mentioned israeli spyware called pigasaus and it can target both iphone and android

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Buy an Android phone that you can flash to change the OS to remove all Google dependancies and use F-Droid to get all of your apps.

i know you said no pixel, however … Pixel + GrapheneOS works great and easy to install.

GrapheneOS takes the google spyware out of pixel. However, it does add a slightly steeper learning curve to Android. Not too bad, just a few more options to poke at.

It doesn’t cut you off from the google play store, instead sandboxing it preventing from accessing data outside its own service. This is important if you need specific apps for work, bank, etc.

For open-source apps F-Droid app store is your friend.

Unfortunately, GrapheneOS only works for pixel. There are other options you could look into such as LinageOS, but those goes beyond my personal knowlage. Specifically you want a phone that allows you unlock the bootloader.

Avoid Samsung like the plague.

Any version of Android that comes pre-installed is going to have Google Spyware and bloat. Manufactures, especially Samsung, spin up their own version of Android so then you have both Googles bloat and Samsung bloat.