Facebook App Uses iPhone’s Camera When You Are Scrolling Your Feed
Joshua Maddux has unearthed yet more controversy around Facebook. Joshua has discovered that the Facebook iOS app was keeping the camera app on his iPhone active even while he was scrolling through his feed. This was reported by ZD Net.
Other app users also confirmed these findings and Joshua also found the same bug on five other devices that he tested.
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
This glitch or bug has only been only appears to be found on iPhones that are running iOS 13.2.2. There have been no users have been able to replicate this on devices that are running the iOS 13.1.3.
What is not clear is how long this bug has been in existence for and it is not clear if this has been intentionally done. There are a few users that are currently running iOS 12 and they have also discovered that the camera app is active while they are using the Facebook app.
This glitch or bug doesn’t seem to happen when you have not given Facebook’s app permission to access or use your device’s camera. Additionally this bug doesn’t seem to be affecting the Android version of Facebook’s app.
While there are not many people who would accuse Facebook of being over the top in regards to protecting user’s privacy it is more than likely this is an unintentional happening. However it possible that there are many people who will question this.
Cnet reported that Guy Rosen, Facebook’s vice president of integrity, tweeted that this appears to be a bug and that Facebook was looking into the problem.
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
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Rosen Tweeted later that Facebook is submitting a fix to the App Store.
Users notice Facebook’s iOS app accesses the camera as they do unrelated things like scrolling their feeds; one workaround is to revoke app’s camera permissions (@alfredwkng / CNET)https://t.co/iRsYbWR8uHhttps://t.co/HiFdj1XWEp
— Techmeme (@Techmeme) November 12, 2019
“We recently discovered our iOS app incorrectly launched in landscape,” Rosen said. “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.”
He also confirmed that Facebook did not upload or use any photos or videos while it was running in the background, stating that it was in preview mode.
Should you be a user of the official Facebook app on your iPhone we suggest update the app or you could also revoke the the Facebook app’s permissions to access you camera and perhaps all other permissions from this app.
