FaceTime Has A Bug, Maybe We've All Been Eavesdropping On Each Other This Whole Time

A tracking device, erm, iPhone. Photo by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/williamhook/24312899908" target="_blank" rel="noopener">William Hook</a>

The other day, I was talking with someone about basketball. The next day, as I'm scrolling through Instagram, I see targeted ad for the Knicks pop up in my feed, even though I can't recall having typed in www dot knicks dot com into my browser. Nor have I been to an NBA game in at least two years. While I'm not saying that tech companies are listening to my private conversations, then selling my words back to me, it's true Big Tech has an eerie and increasingly tight grip on our lives. It's no secret that it's had a tidal shift in how we interact with each other, make decisions, and move through the world.

But it turns out that one of the most prevalent ways that people with iPhones communicate—through FaceTime—has a bug that can only be described as Orwellian. Yesterday, Twitter user @BmManski posted a video of the bug in action, which allows someone to eavesdrop on a conversation before the other person even picks up the call. In fact, they don't even have to pick up the call for snooping to still be possible on the other end. And it's not even just audio: With the bug, it's also possible to see what the other person is doing via the camera function, too, which is not weird at all and totally normal!

Since the revelation went viral, people have been replicating the bug online and in the press, confirming with their friends and family that creeping on each other is very possible, and may have been inadvertently happening for a while now. These tests have been done on a variety of iPhones, and the bug has reportedly affected OS devices running iOS 12.1 or later.

Governor Andrew Cuomo issued a consumer alert about the glitch on Monday night, advising FaceTime users to temporarily disable the app until Apple issues a fix. "The FaceTime bug is an egregious breach of privacy that puts New Yorkers at risk," Cuomo said in a statement. "In New York, we take consumer rights very seriously and I am deeply concerned by this irresponsible bug that can be exploited for unscrupulous purposes."

Apple has not replied to a request for comment, though they told Buzzfeed that they were "aware of this issue and we have identified a fix that will be released in a software update later this week." They have since disabled the Group FaceTime feature, likely until they find a fix for it. Until then, I'd like to take this opportunity to inform my friends and colleagues that I am phasing out FaceTiming from my life, and you can expect any future correspondence from me to come through the post.