Apple iPhone bug allowed spying through FaceTime

We all know Big Brother is listening, and watching. We were shocked to learn it was Apple. Apple has announced it has a fix for the FaceTime eavesdropping bug that was discovered last week and it will come in the form of an iOS 12.1.4 update.

The FaceTime eavesdropping bug allowed iPhone users to exploit a privacy-invading Group FaceTime flaw that let one person connect to another person and hear conversations (and see video, in some cases) without the other person ever having accepted the call.

Apple has put a stop to the FaceTime bug by disabling Group FaceTime server side, leaving the feature unavailable, but questions remain about how long the bug was accessible and how long Apple knew about it before attempting a fix.

The mother of the teenager who originally discovered the bug shared convincing evidence that she contacted the Cupertino company as early as January 20. She did not receive a response from Apple despite sending emails and a video.

It’s not clear, therefore, when the right team at Apple learned of the bug and when work on a fix was started.

The news of the spying bug capped a tough month for Apple which has seen sales of its iPhone slide with some industry observers wondering if it will eventually lead to the death of the product.