Facebook is reportedly working on fixing a bug that automatically activates users’ iPhone camera while using its iOS app. The social networking giant is aware of the bug and has promised to roll out a fix for the same by today.
The bug was discovered earlier this month when Facebook slang words users started noticing that their iPhone’s camera was automatically activated while viewing photos and videos. Sources suggest that the bug appears to be limited to iOS as no Android user has noticed the glitch so far.
Users reported that while viewing videos in full screen, the camera was running in the background while scrolling Facebook. The company has acknowledged the issue and says the glitch was introduced while it fixed another bug in version 244 of the Facebook iOS app.
“We recently discovered that version 244 of the Facebook iOS app would incorrectly launch in landscape mode. In fixing that issue last week in v246 (launched on November 8th) we inadvertently introduced a bug that caused the app to partially navigate to the camera screen adjacent to News Feed when users tapped on photos. We have seen no evidence of photos or videos being uploaded due to this bug. We’re submitting the fix for this to Apple today,” Facebook said in a statement.
Until the bug fix arrives, users are recommenced to deny camera access for the Facebook app. Facebook’s reputation when it comes to user privacy has taken a hit in recent years. In 2018, a study revealed how Facebook exposed information about nearly 87 million users to a political analysis firm for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. It was later found that the data was used for targeted political advertising.
While earlier this year, a security firm also found out that hundreds of millions of Facebook records were exposed on Amazon cloud servers.
