On Tuesday, Facebook confirmed that there was a system bug that allowed them to get access to iPhone cameras while users were scrolling through their feed. A screen recording had been tweeted by Joshua Maddox, a twitter user, this weekend, which showed his iPhone camera opening up when he scrolled through this newsfeed. The glitch had also been noticed by other users earlier this month and it had even been termed ‘a little worrying’ by one user. The company confirmed on Tuesday that the system bug was present in the latest version of the iOS app.
According to a spokesman, when users of the Facebook app tapped on photos, the bug caused the app to navigate to the camera screen next to the News Feed. However, they added that there was no evidence of any videos or photos being uploaded because of this bug. Many users were startled by the discovery of this bug, particularly those who have long suspected that the social media network eavesdrops on its users via their phones’ microphones in order to target them with advertisements in a better way. Uncanny coincidences have only added fuel to the fire, which included the company targeted a user with advertisements of cat foods after they had a discussion about getting a cat.
There were other examples of specific products being showed after people they had been discussed aloud by people. This theory that it listens to its users’ conversations has been repeatedly denied by Facebook. Instead, it has been asserted that the company simply has significant user data for targeting its 1.7 billion users in a way that seems to be scarily accurate. Putting aside these conspiracy theories, Facebook users have had some legitimate concerns regarding their privacy. In recent years, the company has found itself in the middle of several privacy controversies from a hack of more than 50 million accounts last year to the Cambridge Analytics data hack.
There have been an increasing demand for antitrust measures, which include those from presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Last month, Mark Zuckerberg, the executive officer of Facebook, was also subjected to a heated examination in Congress regarding the presidential elections and advertising policies. According to security experts, even though the security concerns pertaining to Facebook are legitimate, they don’t extend to this particular bug. They stated that it didn’t seem as if the bug was anything to worry about.
The system bug was harmless in the way that it only enabled Facebook to use the cameras of their users, but didn’t breach or compromise their privacy or personal data in any way, which was the primary concern. Facebook stated that they would submit a fix for the bug to Apple on Tuesday. Until the problem is fixed, users can simply disable the user of camera by the app. This can easily be done through the iPhone app settings and would assure users that no one, including Facebook, can use their phone’s camera without their knowledge or permission.
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