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Facebook says a bug caused its iPhone app’s inadvertent camera access

techcrunch.com

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Re: Facebook says a bug caused its iPhone app’s inadvertent camera access

#51

Post by saagarjha »

unkclelanny wrote: post #18

I’ve long suspected this as the Facebook app in particular causes the phone to get hot around where the main camera module ic is located. It is also a battery drain. They appear to be doing this in collaboration with Apple as the battery usage for the camera does not increase despite the camera constantly being initiated while using the Facebook app. I’ve also noticed that when certain ad platforms inject their code…

> They appear to be doing this in collaboration with Apple as the battery usage for the camera does not increase despite the camera constantly being initiated while using the Facebook app.

I’m sure any battery usage from this would just be listed under Facebook.

Re: Facebook says a bug caused its iPhone app’s inadvertent camera access

#54

Post by mattacular »

saagarjha wrote: post #51
unkclelanny wrote: post #18

I’ve long suspected this as the Facebook app in particular causes the phone to get hot around where the main camera module ic is located. It is also a battery drain. They appear to be doing this in collaboration with Apple as the battery usage for the camera does not increase despite the camera constantly being initiated while using the Facebook app. I’ve also noticed that when certain ad platforms inject their code…

> They appear to be doing this in collaboration with Apple as the battery usage for the camera does not increase despite the camera constantly being initiated while using the Facebook app. I’m sure any battery usage from this would just be listed under Facebook.

Right, battery usage is reported by app not by hardware function. It seems unlikely Apple would be willfully letting Facebook have special capabilities.

Re: Facebook says a bug caused its iPhone app’s inadvertent camera access

#55

Post by vonmoltke »

goatinaboat wrote: post #38
have_faith wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because he's much more likely to be targeted than any of us for things like that?

In a building he owns, on a network he owns, defended by an army of network engineers he employs? No, he’s not protecting himself from any external threat.

This is common practice among US government employees as well. The fact that Zuck does it as well doesn't say anything about Facebook's practices WRT their users.

Re: Facebook says a bug caused its iPhone app’s inadvertent camera access

#56

Post by kd5bjo »

9dl wrote: post #49
ic4l wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure who downvoted you. But I agree 100% with this, he is a high value target.

So we, filthy plebs, have low value and because of that we have to share our data for free Nice

Nothing is preventing you from putting a sticker over your webcam, just like Zuck does.

Re: Facebook says a bug caused its iPhone app’s inadvertent camera access

#57

Post by vonmoltke »

nealdt wrote: post #34
asenk wrote: post #3

Good time to remind that Facebook has previously intentionally bypassed permission dialogs to gather data without user permission: https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/5433555/Note-by-C...

Also nice reminder about that lovely photo of Zuck with a sticker covering up his webcam. Now why would he do something like that ... ?

I do it. My wife does it. My sister does it. The cameras at Bloomberg all had shutters, and I used it there as well. It's just good (paranoid?) OPSEC to defend against remote takeover exploits.

Re: Facebook says a bug caused its iPhone app’s inadvertent camera access

#59

Post by rrix2 »

villgax wrote: post #37

Same goes to WhatsApp if your camera preview is accessible on swiping to the left or whatever. They must be sending small snippets of video/audio/images periodically, its too tempting to not do so at that scale if you already have the permissions.

Except that they'd be hung by their toes if they were caught doing that.

Re: Facebook says a bug caused its iPhone app’s inadvertent camera access

#60

Post by dangus »

moooo99 wrote: post #50
bigiain wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, you know, delete the demonstrated-untrustworthy app from your device...

Thats what bothers me the most about my Samsung phone. Facebook came preinstalled and I cannot uninstall it. I can only deactivate (whatever that means). I don't use facebook, I actually never did. Its not the fact that I'm loosing a few MBs of storage that really bothers me, it's the fact that this is the facebook app.

You can uninstall it using ADB, even without rooting. Not a consumer-friendly solution but I’m throwing that out there in case you want to try it.
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