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A serious bug in Apple’s Facetime video calling software could allow people to listen to you via your phone’s microphone – without you picking up a call.

A viral Tweet showed off how to spy on users using Facetime, with people able to listen via the microphone and watch via the camera before anyone has picked up.

The bug, reported by 9to5Mac, is simple to perform on the latest version of iOS: you just start a FaceTime video call, then swipe up from the bottom and tap Add Person.

Add your own number, and the group call will begin, with audio of the person you called in the first place – even if they haven’t picked up.

You can also see through the phone’s front-facing camera as well.

Apple has now disabled the group FaceTime feature in response to the find.

“I would be deeply disturbed if someone was able to spy on me, even for a short while, without me noticing,” British computer security expert Graham Cluley wrote.

“It’s easy how it might also be used by jealous partners and obsessive stalkers to spy on the vulnerable.”

In a statement, Apple said that they are aware of this issue and have “identified a fix” that will be released in a software update later this week.

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  • I don’t have an iPhone. Good to see Apple acted quickly to prevent this. I do use messenger video calls. I wonder if that has any similar issues?

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  • Wow, I had no idea about this

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  • Gosh! I use facetime every week to keep in touch with family overseas and had no idea. Thanks for the alert.

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  • What the hell? I’ve never even heard of this. How is this possible?

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  • Unfortunately these bugs tend to be infiltrating all of our applications. It is particularly disconcerting when you have spoken about something or looked something up and all of a sudden Facebook bombards you with ads that are relevant to whatever you looked up or discussed.

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  • I know one family who use facetime. The child stays with parents on alternate weeks. It gives the child a few minutes with the parent the child is not with.

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  • That’s scary!!
    I’ve turned facetime off on my kids iPads just in case.

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  • It is really quite scary. Hope they fix it quick smart for those that are unaware.

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  • Glad I don’t have an iPhone.


    • I think a number of people might just feel this way at the moment.

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  • Thanks for the heads up – do not have an iphone! Quite disturbing!

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  • AW that’s scary ! Good that Apple disabled the group FaceTime feature.

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  • Haven’t used this feature luckily

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  • Ohhhh that is very creepy! Don’t like the sound of that at all!!

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  • Lucky I don’t have an iPhone but this can’t be good for those that do have his.

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  • That’s a bit scary! I think my daughter might have that

    Reply

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