A major glitch in Apple’s FaceTime app has been allowing callers to secretly eavesdrop while the call has not yet been answered. In some cases, the caller can even see a video without the recipient even accepting the FaceTime call.
Once again, a big corporation is in deep with glitches allowing for the violation of privacy. This time, however, individuals can spy on other individuals rather than the government doing so, but it’s nonetheless a concern for those who like their privacy. The FaceTime glitch was first noticed by trade publication 9to5Mac, which wrote that the bug, which was “spreading virally over social media,” lets you “immediately hear the audio coming from their phone.”
The bug was widely reported late Monday, and confirmed by several technology reporters. Until it can offer a permanent fix, Apple simply disabled group FaceTime calls altogether, according to NPR.
It’s an unusual misstep for a company that prides itself on its strong privacy safeguards. And it comes in an environment of heightened scrutiny over privacy protections, as a new Congress considers whether to impose stronger regulations on technology companies like Facebook that are often accused of violating users’ privacy. –NPR.
9to5Mac even listed a detailed succession of the steps a user would need to take in order to reproduce the glitch. Those steps included starting a FaceTime video call with an iPhone contact and then immediately adding your own phone number to the call. This would trick the phone into starting a group FaceTime call and activate the other person’s audio enabling the caller to eavesdrop. If the recipient hit the power or volume button, the phone would broadcast video as well, the Verge reported.
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
“The damage potential here is real,” 9to5Mac wrote. “You can listen in to soundbites of any iPhone user’s ongoing conversation without them ever knowing that you could hear them. Until Apple fixes the bug, it’s not clear how to defend yourself against this attack either aside from disabling FaceTime altogether.”
This glitch could also further strain the economy as investors who have already been on panic alert since Apple said it was lowering revenue expectations this quarter, citing lower demand for iPhones and unexpected difficulties in the Chinese market.
Early wireless telephones could easily be picked up by scanners one could buy for a couple hundred dollars. People once could routinely listen in on early cell phones. They were not encrypted.
Who cares.
Would you care if your wife and daughtwre were being cyberstalked? A few years ago, such security breaches allowed hackers to turn on the camera in laptops.
Open air totalitarian prison. Totalitarianism is the complete control of everything by the state. It is what the bosses are working towards. Totalitarianism is the direct opposite of anarchy (no, not the western perverted meaning) which denotes no control by the state.
So is “face time” anything like Orwell’s “face crime” from 1984? Any facial expression out of the ordinary could be cause for punishment…much like the SJWs want to punish the Covington kid for his facial expressions.
My laptop camera is taped over. But if you have any Google or Amazon device like Echo or Alexa, your are being listened to all the time. How else would they know to “come to life” if they weren’t constantly listening for the command to awake?
Alexa?
Yes?
Alexa, can you please record all of my personal habits and data and send it to the NSA?
It’s already done subject number 8675309…err…JRS.
I could use this for business and utilitarian purposes, except the person on the other end is not usually business-like or utilitarian, when there is no leverage.
I am curious, by nature, constantly. Constantly, I find that simple, Peewee Herman, Sarah Silverman-level questions have never been answered, before.
It’s usually the kind of reading that you find in the junk mail and blander magazines.