A few days ago, users discovered a bug that affected the privacy of those who used FaceTime to make calls.
According to the report, the FaceTime bug allowed iPhone users to start a group video chat and hear the audio coming from the person they are calling. The surprising thing about this can be done even before the user decides to accept the call. What this meant was that iPhone users were able to secretly hear the private conversations of those they were calling via FaceTime.
As soon as the bug was discovered, Apple decided to disable group FaceTime. The company also released an apology and quickly sprung into action to take care of the bug. They also promised to release a software fix within the week.
It is said that the bug was first discovered by 14-year-old Grant Thompson and his mother, Michele. The two reported the issue to Apple before mainstream media picked up on it.
Apple’s apology reads:
"We have fixed the Group FaceTime security bug on Apple's servers and we will issue a software update to re-enable the feature for users next week. We thank the Thompson family for reporting the bug. We sincerely apologize to our customers who were affected and all who were concerned about this security issue. We appreciate everyone's patience as we complete this process."
"We want to assure our customers that as soon as our engineering team became aware of the details necessary to reproduce the bug, they quickly disabled Group FaceTime and began work on the fix. We are committed to improving the process by which we receive and escalate these reports, in order to get them to the right people as fast as possible. We take the security of our products extremely seriously and we are committed to continuing to earn the trust Apple customers place in us." - Apple
