A newly discover Facetime glitch has caused a breach of privacy for customers using Apples services.
The Facetime glitch allows callers to hear the other side of the call without the receiver answering, which is caused by a fault in the 12.1 version of Apple's mobile operating system, iOS.
It will only happen if iPhone users have this version of iOS and are engaging in a group Facetime call, where the receiver doesn't answer. This was reported by 9to5Mac Blog. The fault will also affect Mac users if they are being called through Facetime.
To break it down, if you begin a Facetime call, and then swipe up to add a person to the call and let the call ring out, you will begin to hear the audio from the original person you called without them answering their phones. As simple as that.
This happens with the software's group chat function somehow activating the receivers microphone while the call is going through. Apple has now disabled the group chat Facetime feature on their phones for the time being until the fault is fixed.
This comes at a pretty bad timing for Apple, on "National Privacy Day" in America, which Apple CEO has celebrated, as well as Apple having attended a CES tech expo in Las Vegas showing off their privacy credentials.
We must keep fighting for the kind of world we want to live in. On this #DataPrivacyDay let us all insist on action and reform for vital privacy protections. The dangers are real and the consequences are too important.
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) January 28, 2019
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Along with this, it's been reported that blocking the call or switching off your phone will cause your phone to send video to the caller without permission.
Apple made a statement saying:
“We’re aware of this issue and we have identified a fix that will be released in a software update later this week.”
Many people, including Twitter Chief Executive and the New York Governor, have been advising iPhone users to disable their Facetime app all together. You can do this by going into settings, scroll to Facetime and switching the button from green to grey.
