Facebook's iOS app bug keeps camera on even when you are scrolling through your feed

Another day, and another Facebook-related privacy-compromising news. This time around, it’s iPhone users using the Facebook app that need to be careful. It seems like Facebook may be using your camera the moment you open the app, even if you are not in the camera mode and are just scrolling through your feed. [caption id=“attachment_7571201” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”] Image: Facebook[/caption] Twitter user Joshua Maddux tweeted about this issue via a video tweet. The video shows that the camera is clearly working in the background. The camera feed captured by the rear camera is visible in a vertical sliver on the left-hand side after you open a photo in the Facebook app and swipe down. At this point in time, it’s difficult to say if it is a Facebook bug or some issue with iOS 13.2.2. Apple’s latest iOS updates do throw up bugs every once in a while. According to Maddux, he found this issue on five iPhones running iOS 13.2.2. iPhones running on iOS 12 didn’t show this issue. The Next Web claims that while the issue is seen on iOS 13.2.2, it wasn’t seen with iOS 13.1.3. 

Found a @facebook #security & #privacy issue. When the app is open it actively uses the camera. I found a bug in the app that lets you see the camera open behind your feed. Note that I had the camera pointed at the carpet. pic.twitter.com/B8b9oE1nbl

— Joshua Maddux (@JoshuaMaddux) November 10, 2019

On testing it independently, we couldn’t notice the issue on Android 10 on Pixel 3 XL or on Android 9 on ROG Phone II. We checked on our iPhone 11 as well, but couldn’t notice the issue. Looks like this issue is being seen only in some regions and isn’t global yet. For now, it only looks like the bug is being seen only on iPhones. Many other iPhone users have also tweeted their experience with this bug.

Facebook app on iOS 13.2.2 opens my phone’s rear camera when I open a profile photo swipe down to return (look at the little slit on the left of the video). Is this an app bug or an iOS bug?? @facebook @AppleSupport pic.twitter.com/WlhSXZulqx

— Daryl Lasafin (@dzlasafin) November 10, 2019

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Does the #facebook app keeps the camera open all the time? I observe interesting “bug” on my phone. Note that no other apps are open pic.twitter.com/m9fWCer9VU

— Ivaylo Ivanov (@ivgivanov) November 10, 2019