Apple FaceTime Bug Allows You to Snoop on Your Friends

• A viral video on Twitter and Snapchat detailed privacy breaching FaceTime bug that exposed microphone and camera data.
• Apple responded stating that they are “aware of this issue and we have identified a fix that will be released in a software update later this week."
• The bug was discovered shortly after a critical security bug was patched that allowed hackers to initiate FaceTime calls.

A new Facetime bug was discovered that allows users to snoop on each very easily. Facetime turns on the microphone of users before they pick calls, making the bug highly sensitive. Anyone could just ring your FaceTime and listen to what you are doing whenever they please. And that’s not all if you choose to ignore calls by pressing the volume or power buttons on your Apple device, it would cause your camera to start streaming video too.

According to 9to5Mac, Apple has temporarily disabled group FaceTime calling to protect user privacy until the bug gets fixed. The tech giant has promised a permanent solution later this week, and we have to play the waiting game until a patch is deployed. The app’s group chat functionality which was released last year is said to be the source of the bug.

Now you can answer for yourself on FaceTime even if they don’t answer🤒#Apple explain this.. pic.twitter.com/gr8llRKZxJ

— DEAD FRIENDS™ (@DeadFriendsCHI) January 28, 2019

If you are too concerned about your privacy, you can disable FaceTime completely as well by heading to your Settings app from any iOS device and heading to Facetime settings. You will find a toggle button to turn the messaging app off, and you can leave it disabled until Apple deploys a patch to fix the issue. If you are a Mac user, you can simply Turn off FaceTime from the menu bar after launching the app, and it will prevent the app from restarting until you do so manually.

Apple has listed the bug on its System status page, and you can bookmark the page if you want to find out when the issue gets resolved. News of the FaceTime bug became viral after a video detailing the steps to trigger the bug was posted on Snapchat and Twitter.

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