FaceTime Bug Lets You Listen to the Person You Are Calling Before Even They Pick Up

Ok, here’s the thing. iOS 12.1 has a major bug with FaceTime. When you make FaceTime call, you can hear to someone’s microphone before they even pick up. And that could be a very, very, very disastrous bug (via 9to5Mac).

The feature works very easily as well. All you need to do is start a FaceTime Video call with someone that also has FaceTime/iPhone, swipe up to reveal the FaceTime menu, tap Add Person, and add your own number on the Add Person screen. And just like that, you will be able to hear the audio of the person you originally called without them even picking up the actual call.

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

The feature is related to FaceTime’s new group calling feature. But either way, this is a serious problem. If Apple can’t fix this server-side, the company could get itself in a lot of trouble. This is a major breach of privacy, even though the International Privacy Day was just yesterday (and still is, in some countries). Awkward.

Tagged with

Share post

Please check our Community Guidelines before commenting

Conversation 6 comments

  • provision l-3

    28 January, 2019 - 8:12 pm

    <p>It's a significant and embarrassing bug. You can update the article thought, Apple has announced a fix is coming this week so the handwringing over getting it fixed is time wasted. </p>

    • dontbe evil

      29 January, 2019 - 1:29 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#400198">In reply to provision l-3:</a></em></blockquote><p>of course bugs should be fixed</p>

    • KeepMyCoat

      29 January, 2019 - 2:38 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#400198">In reply to provision l-3:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>"handwringing" ? </p><p><br></p><p>Are you kidding me ? This bug is INCREDIBAD, not only it gives access to the microphone… but it even <strong>gives access to phone’s front-facing camera if the person receiving the call presses their phone’s power button.</strong></p><p><br></p><p>This kind of bug should be fixed ASAP, not "this week", that is why Mehdi Hassan mentioned server side fix.</p><p><br></p><p>If they can't fix this server side, I expect another article on this bug very soon about a class action lawsuit against Apple.</p><p><br></p><p>Update: Apple shuts down the group Facetime servers:&nbsp;<a href="https://i.imgur.com/7dlvveo.jpg&quot; target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 121, 211);">https://i.imgur.com/7dlvveo.jpg</a></p><p><br></p&gt;

      • provision l-3

        29 January, 2019 - 6:25 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#400248">In reply to KeepMyCoat:</a></em></blockquote><p>If your are going to respond please don't selectively quote. At no point did I dismiss the severity of the bug. </p><p><br></p><p>At the point that this article was published Apple had announced a fix was coming (it was actually in the source article this one links to) which was completely left out of this article. Further this article was never updated, like the source article was, to reflect the camera issue or the sever issue. That is shoddy journalism. </p><p><br></p><p>Here is a neat fact for you. Two things can be true at once. The bug can both be a really big deal and this article about it can be poorly written. Tah-dah!</p>

  • dontbe evil

    29 January, 2019 - 1:29 am

    <p>the famous apple quality</p>

  • markbyrn

    Premium Member
    29 January, 2019 - 8:48 am

    <p>Outrageous. Apple CEO Tim Cook grandstands as a social activist and prattles on about privacy while his bungling engineers have turned the iPhone into a remotely controlled eavesdropping device.&nbsp;</p>

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Thurrott © 2024 Thurrott LLC