Apple Disables Group FaceTime as Temporary Workaround to Major Privacy Bug

Apple appears to have disabled Group FaceTime on its server side as a temporary workaround for a major bug discovered today that allowed anyone who places a FaceTime call to listen to audio from the recipient without them answering the call. The bug even extended to video in some circumstances.

As spotted by Mark Gurman, Apple's system status page now says 'Group FaceTime is temporarily unavailable' as of 7:16 p.m. Pacific Time.

Apple killed FaceTime conferencing server side it seems. Right move. pic.twitter.com/H23W2tirgr— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) January 29, 2019

As a result, it is no longer possible to add your personal phone number to a Group FaceTime call, which was the underlying cause of the bug. Multiple editors on our team have confirmed being unable to add a phone number to a FaceTime call. One-on-one FaceTime calls continue to work normally.

Apple has promised to release a software update that permanently addresses the bug 'later this week,' and given the serious privacy implications, the company likely has engineers working on the update as we speak.

Group FaceTime is limited to iOS 12.1 and later.Tags: FaceTime, FaceTime Listening BugThis article, "Apple Disables Group FaceTime as Temporary Workaround to Major Privacy Bug" first appeared on MacRumors.comDiscuss this article in our forums