In an article today by Matt O'Brien at Associated Press, it is being
reported how the Apple FaceTime eavesdropping bug was discovered by
a 14-year-old and that despite his mother contacting Apple nearly every
day by email, telephone and fax, it took the company nine days to respond.
The New York Attorney General and Governor of New York are now investigating to
determine whether Apple may be culpable.
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Originally Posted by Matt O'Brien, AP
Last October, Apple introduced the 32-person video conferencing feature for iPhones, iPads and Macs. With the bug, a FaceTime group-chat user calling another Apple device could hear audio — even if the receiver didn’t accept the call. The bug was triggered when callers turned a regular FaceTime call into a group chat, making FaceTime think the receiver had accepted the chat.
In Grant’s case, he had just gotten his Xbox ready and called to invite a friend, Nathan, to play “Fortnite” with him online.
“You can swipe up and add another person, so I added another friend of mine, Diego, to see if he also wanted to play,” he said. “But as soon as I added Diego, it forced Nathan to respond.”
They were shocked at first, then tried to repeat the bug and it happened every time, he said. His mother, Michele Thompson, said she started trying to reach Apple the next day.
“They could have tested it within two minutes, realized it was true and brought it up the chain at Apple,” said Thompson, who works as an attorney. “There needs to be a better process for the average citizen to report things like this. And a timelier response.”
She eventually reached someone who advised that she could register as a software developer to submit the bug.
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Matt O'Brien, AP
The company — at first widely praised for its swift response — could come under increased scrutiny as regulators seek to learn more about the vulnerability.
New York Attorney General Letitia James and Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday that they’re investigating “Apple’s failure to warn consumers about the FaceTime bug and slow response to addressing the issue.”
They said the bug jeopardized the privacy of New York consumers. James said her office’s review will include a “thorough investigation into Apple’s response."
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Article here :-
https://www.apnews.com/6de22b18cf38450db65ef582b15f0564