image : Apple

Apple has said it has fixed a privacy bug in its FaceTime video chat app that allowed users to listen to the audio of a person they were dialing before that person picked up the call. The issue in the FaceTime group chat feature which was blocked by Apple will be turned on again next week, the company says.

The bug was discovered by 14-year-old Grant Thompson, An Arizona teen, who, along with his mother, Michele, tried to get Apple aware but said they struggled to get its attention until the issue went viral on social media. Thompson discovered it while trying to chat with his friend when he was playing a video game, Fortnite in particular.

An Apple customer holding up two iPhone Xs boxes with an Apple team member image : Apple

“We want to assure our customers that as soon as our engineering team became aware of the details necessary to reproduce the bug, they quickly disabled Group FaceTime and began work on the fix,” Apple said in a statement. “We are committed to improving the process by which we receive and escalate these reports, in order to get them to the right people as fast as possible.”

The state of New York is probing whether Apple was too slow to warn consumers of the FaceTime bug. “New Yorkers deserve to know that their phones are safe and cannot be used against them,” Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a statement.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo image : Diana Robinson on Flickr

“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.” Attorney General Letitia James also said.

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