Apple immediately put down the Group FaceTime after reports surfaced that users' privacy could have been compromised.
Apple had to disable the Group FaceTime immediately as a corrective action to the eavesdropping allegations that went viral in social media on Monday. Users reportedly discovered that a bug appeared on the application that could probably make spying easy.
Apple's System Status page now shows that the Group FaceTime has been unavailable since 10:16 PM ET. The status comes earlier than what the tech giant promised that a fix for the issue is coming later this week.
On Monday, reports from multiple tech outlets surfaced claiming that iPhone users are able to spy on the person they are calling's audio. The reports claim that the FaceTime caller is able to hear the audio from the person they are calling even before the person on the other line answers the call.
According to the reports gathered from various sources and customer complains, the eavesdropping can be done by a simple Face Time call.
An iPhone user starts a FaceTime Video call with an iPhone contact. While the phone is still ringing on the other end, the caller swipes up from the bottom of the screen and taps Add Person. The user must then add his own phone number in the Add Person space. That starts a group FaceTime call with the user, his own number and the person he is calling.
Initializing the FaceTime video calling then starts the audio from the end of the person he is calling to be heard on his end even without the called person picking up the call. The User Interface would show that the person being called joined the group Face Time video call when in fact it is still ringing on their part.
Upon discovering Apple's FaceTime spying bug, iPhone users thought that they already encountered the worst Face Time eavesdropping bug so far. However, the nightmare does not end there. 9to5 Mac revealed an even worst scenario.
When an iPhone user makes a FaceTime call to another iPhone user and the recipient presses the power button from the lock screen to end the call, not only the recipient's audio is transmitted to the caller but the recipient's video as well. The call recipient will not know that they have transmitted their audio and video because all they can see on their end is the option to accept or to decline the call.
As of this writing, Apple's Group FaceTime remains unavailable until the security bug I fixed, according to the ABC News.
