New York state begins probe into Apple’s slow response to FaceTime eavesdropping flaw

“New York officials are investigating a recent Apple Inc. privacy breach that allowed some users of its FaceTime video-chat service to listen in on people they contacted even before the person accepted or rejected the call,” Erik Larson and Mark Gurman report for Bloomberg.
“The joint probe by New York Attorney General Letitia James and Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office will focus on what they say was Apple’s failure to warn consumers about the bug and its slow response to one of the biggest privacy-related problems faced by the company,” Larson and Gurman report. “‘This FaceTime breach is a serious threat to the security and privacy of the millions of New Yorkers who have put their trust in Apple and its products over the years,’ James said in the statement on Wednesday. ‘We need a full accounting of the facts to confirm businesses are abiding by New York consumer protection laws and to help make sure this type of privacy breach does not happen again,’ Cuomo said in the statement.”
“Cupertino, California-based Apple mitigated the problem on Monday by remotely disabling multi-person FaceTime,” Larson and Gurman report. “It also said it would release a software update later this week to fix the issue.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Cuomo and James are simply playing politics as usual.
That said, as we wrote earlier today: “Tim Cook’s slipshod Apple deserves as much pain as it takes in order to approximate the critical gaze of the exacting founder that it so desperately misses.”
SEE ALSO:
Apple sued over FaceTime bug that lets people eavesdrop – January 30, 2019
Apple was alerted about FaceTime eavesdropping bug days ago, did nothing – January 29, 2019
Apple, champion of ‘privacy,’ utterly blows it with massively stupid FaceTime bug – January 29, 2019
Apple to patch audio bug in FaceTime that allows users to hear audio and see video from users who have not yet accepted a call – January 29, 2019
Apple CEO Cook calls for U.S. Congress to pass comprehensive federal privacy legislation in TIME op-ed – January 17, 2019
Apple CEO Cook promotes privacy as ‘fundamental human right’ via tweetstorm; asks ‘What kind of world do we want to live in?’ – October 24, 2018
Open letter to Tim Cook: Apple needs to do better – January 5, 2015