Facebook Bug that Affects I-Phones

Icegoddess · ‎03-19-2010

Facebook says a bug that inadvertently accesses a user's iPhone camera while they're scrolling through the News Feed will be fixed sometime today.

The bug, which was discovered by Joshua Maddux, owner of web design firm 95Visual, appears to be exclusive to iOS and does not affect Android devices.

Maddux took to Twitter to report his discovery, where he posted a video that showed his camera, pointing forward, was running in the background while he was scrolling Facebook.

"I thought I had opened the camera by accident," Maddux wrote in an email to CNN of the discovery. "Then, on Saturday evening as I closed out a video on Facebook [I] saw the camera again on the left side."

Jerry Gamblin, principal security engineer at Kenna Security, was able to replicate the bug and told CNN "there is no indication that the data actually is transmitted to Facebook."

Reached for comment, Facebook confirmed the bug was "inadvertently introduced" and promised a fix was in the works.

"We have seen no evidence of photos or videos being uploaded due to this bug. We're submitting the fix for this to Apple today," a spokesman said.

Until the fix is officially approved, Gamblin recommends that users revoke camera access for the Facebook app until an update is available.

Facebook has been steadily working to win back user trust after a series of scandals, including the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal in which Facebook exposed up to 87 million users' information to the political analysis firm hired by Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

That data was later used for targeted political advertising.

A security firm also discovered that hundreds of millions of Facebook records were left exposed on Amazon cloud servers earlier this year.

Goldengate8361 · ‎01-27-2014

Another reason to not use Facebook?

chrystaltree · ‎05-10-2010

Another reason not to have an I phone. Apparently it's not affecting Androids.

Icegoddess · ‎03-19-2010

Apparently, the fix is out. But, it could just as easily have affected Android devices. You can go into your Facebook settings and disallow the camera, but that is an Opt-Out instead of an Opt-In. I would imagine most people don't even know that Faceook had access to their cameras much less that they were Opted-In. It's a trend with Facebook. They change things, but don't tell the customer, and sometimes when they change things, they change the customer settings, so you have to stay on top of that too.

chrystaltree · ‎05-10-2010

All the articles specificially say it does NOT affect Android users. It's just I phones.

Icegoddess · ‎03-19-2010

@chrystaltree wrote:
All the articles specificially say it does NOT affect Android users. It's just I phones.

@chrystaltree , I understand that, but that doesn't mean some other bug now or in the future can't affect Android phones. So, it could've just as easily affected Androids, just not this time. That's what I meant. Android is not necessarily any safer than Iphone. I have Android, my husband has Iphone, we both have both Macs & Windows machines although I refuse to update to Windows 10.