A recent report revealed a disturbing bug with Apple’s Group FaceTime feature where it basically allowed a caller to listen in on the other person without their knowledge. This has been making the headlines in the past few days, but as it turns out that this bug was actually reported to Apple more than a week ago.
According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, a teen in Arizona, Grant Thompson, actually discovered the Group FaceTime bug while trying to setup a group call session while playing Fortnite. Grant and his mom, Michele, tried to reach out to Apple in various ways (including even trying to fax the company) for more than a week without much avail.
They discovered that they needed a developer account in order to report the bug, but even then they claimed that Apple’s security team did not take the issue seriously, at least until more recently where the bug started to make its rounds on social media. It is unclear if the Thompsons will be given a bounty for their discovery.
In the meantime Apple appears to have temporarily disabled Group FaceTime while they race to get a fix out ASAP. If you’d rather not take the chance, you can check out our guide here on how to turn off FaceTime completely.
My teen found a major security flaw in Apple’s new iOS. He can listen in to your iPhone/iPad without your approval. I have video. Submitted bug report to @AppleSupport…waiting to hear back to provide details. Scary stuff! #apple #bugreport @foxnews
— MGT7 (@MGT7500) January 21, 2019
One of many emails sent to Apple 1 week ago attempting to report the Group FaceTime bug. @cnbc @cnn @foxnews @9to5mac pic.twitter.com/l9IFMZmKh6
— MGT7 (@MGT7500) January 29, 2019
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