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.

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.

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.

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 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.

You say that as if Google’s platform isn’t also riddled with spyware. “Spying,” AKA advertising, is Google’s bread & butter.

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

Have you rebooted? The current Israeli malware all the state actors use allegedly can get in sans interaction but can’t survive a reboot…

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.

Maybe fully reset/restore your phone first to wipe any malicious apps?

If anything, use a degoogled OS instead of android.

Have you tried wiping the phone and being careful about what apps you install?

The camera specifically says it was accessed by the camera app which seems perfectly normal. The microphone being unknown is odd.

You can’t get notifications while offline, so that sounds more like a bug of some kind in an app you have installed maybe?

You should get a Fairphone and use a degoogled custom ROM. If you really want to get away from Google at the expense of some functionality, you can try a Linux ROM, but I’d recommend one based on Android such as Lineage OS. The benefits are mostly freedom adjacent. You have the freedom to run any app you want, whether it’s from the app store or not. You have the freedom to use any browser engine you like, and download extensions to Firefox. You have the freedom to root your device and make simple full backups of your device to any local storage that you own by accessing the root storage folder. You have the freedom to use apps like Rethink DNS to block ads device-wide, and there are generally a lot more FOSS apps written for Android than iOS as you don’t have to jump through all the hoops of the app store to make your apps available for others.

Non-google android is the way to go unless you’re looking to be even more adventurous. Which phone you should look for depends which of the OS options you prefer. No pixel means no grapheneOS. LineageOS is the one I chose, runs on quite a few mostly older phones. There are many others.

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.