Facebook secretly uses the iPhone’s camera as long as you use the app

November 19, 2019November 19, 2019 admin 549 Views

Facebook has been accused in the past that “listens” to user chats. Denied accusations, but the latest development does not help its position and heightens users’ concerns. In a recent tweet, Joshua Maddux found that when using Facebook for iOS, the camera is unnecessarily powered and running in the background. The phenomenon is found in newer iOS versions, not older ones.

Found a @facebook #security & #privacy issue. When the app is open it actively uses the camera. I found a bug in the app that lets you see the camera open behind your feed. Note that I had the camera pointed at the carpet. pic.twitter.com/B8b9oE1nbl
— Joshua Maddux (@JoshuaMaddux) November 10, 2019

Following Maddux’s reports, CNET was able to reproduce the phenomenon, and found that its first report was found on November 2.

I take the phone back out, but there’s no indication on the lock screen to say audio or video was playing. I unlock the phone, and there’s the video on @Instagram playing away.
— Neo QA (@neo_qa) November 2, 2019

Facebook app on iOS 13.2.2 opens my phone’s rear camera when I open a profile photo swipe down to return (look at the little slit on the left of the video). Is this an app bug or an iOS bug?? @facebook @AppleSupport pic.twitter.com/WlhSXZulqx
— Daryl Lasafin (@dzlasafin) November 10, 2019

Facebook immediately recognized the problem and attributed it to a bug that will fix it today.

We recently found out that Facebook’s 244 version of iOS was launching the camera in landscape mode, which shouldn’t. Fixing this problem last week with release 246 – released November 8 – we introduced a bug that made the app select the camera next to the News Feed whenever users selected photos. We didn’t see any photos or videos uploaded because of this bug.

We recently discovered our iOS app incorrectly launched in landscape. In fixing that last week in v246 we inadvertently introduced a bug where the app partially navigates to the camera screen when a photo is tapped. We have no evidence of photos/videos uploaded due to this.
— Guy Rosen (@guyro) November 12, 2019

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