iPhone 18 Pro gets Apple Reference Image to verify photo authenticity

Apple introduced Apple Reference Image, an exclusive iPhone 18 Pro feature that creates a digital negative of a photo or video to prove its authenticity. The system relies on dedicated secure hardware and Private Cloud Compute, letting fraudulent images be revoked without exposing the photographer's identity. It is Apple's answer to Google's C2PA standard, whose metadata researchers showed can be stripped with ExifTool.

• Apple Reference Image creates a securely timestamped reference image from the iPhone camera
• The feature is opt-in and limited to iPhone 18 Pro models
• Private Cloud Compute can revoke fraudulent images without revealing the photographer
• Google's C2PA metadata can reportedly be stripped using ExifTool