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Bug in Facebook App Accesses the Camera in the Background

Some hard-hitting journalism to simply agree with Facebook’s categorization of this as a “bug”.
 
CE3 said:
We need more transparency and control over all the background processes running on our mobile devices and the ability to kill them. Windows has Task Manager, macOS has Activity Monitor, iOS has nothing and it's long overdue.
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In theory the activity of each background process is outlined in the app’s privacy policy and terms of service.
 
macfacts said:
Are you saying apps access permissions are enforced by the honour system? And you are ok with this?
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I am saying that if you develop on the (Apples) App store you have to abide by the rules set by Apple, if you circumvent those rules the App could be retracted or worse, you could loose your Developers account and therefor can't provide Apps for the Appstore.
 
Weirdly enough I don't have a microphone or camera privacy setting for Facebook. The app simply isnt listed there. Under Facebook's settings in the iOS13 settings menu, it also doesnt include these settings. What gives? I'm on iOS 13.2.2 with the latest Facebook build.
 
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cirial said:
Weirdly enough I don't have a microphone or camera privacy setting for Facebook. The app simply isnt listed there. Under Facebook's settings in the iOS13 settings menu, it also doesnt include these settings. What gives? I'm on iOS 13.2.2 with the latest Facebook build.
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I think apps appear there after attempting to use the specific resource?
 
So in theory they could be capturing photos of you in the nude without your knowledge, or performing facial recognition. on any face that is captured.

How many of you Facebook on the potty?!?!?!
 
There should be a bounty assessed by the Feds and paid by FaceBook for every bug caught by users with the time to check FaceBook's code. If the bounty is high enough there will be plenty of interest in finding bugs that accumulate. FaceBook will be similarly encouraged to keep them from escaping the code room.
 
Another great reason never to have facebook. It's also a Boomer platform by now and people post the cringiest things.
 
dwsolberg said:
The bug is that Facebook is letting you know it's always watching and listening.
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Actually, the simplest explanation is that Facebook is accessing the camera and microphone to watch what you're doing, but it accidentally showed the hidden video view it's using.
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A far simpler explanation than that is it’s a layout bug which accidentally activates and displays the in-app “Facebook Camera” view which can be used to take/edit photos to share in the app. One used to be able to access it by swiping from the left in the News Feed, but it appears that they have disabled that in light of this issue. This especially makes sense given that the regular app UI is offset to the right in the provided screenshots…
 
dwsolberg said:
Actually, the simplest explanation is that Facebook is accessing the camera and microphone to watch what you're doing, but it accidentally showed the hidden video view it's using.
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While that's certainly a plausible explanation, between Occam's razor and Hanlon's Razor, it doesn't necessarily have to be the most simple/applicable one.

macfacts said:
Facebook's app is apparently able to access the camera when the user did not grant permission. That is a security failure. Yeah FB is taking advantage of it but the security failure lies with apple.
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Where does it mention that? Seems like the opposite is mentioned.

McTaste said:
Some hard-hitting journalism to simply agree with Facebook’s categorization of this as a “bug”.
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Putting a spin on it makes for better journalism? (Also, seems that a security researcher referred to it as such as well, with more details in linked referenced articles, like the one at https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/12/facebook-iphone-camera-bug/.)
 
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Facebook is such a horrible, horrible company. Unfortunately I am forced (by society) to use WhatsApp, but boy am I glad I deleted my facebook account 4 years ago. It's ridiculous that every time i check my browser cookies, there are cookies of Instagram and Facebook even though i NEVER visit those websites. Mark Suckerberg stalks you literally everywhere.

Watch "The Great Hack" on Netflix, and you'll understand what I just said.
 
Can't remember what forums user it was, but somewhere not too long ago we were debating whether or not this was a thing. I was being served advertisements for both water & cologne that I had *NEVER* searched in any browser app. I was convinced that apps were using my camera or mic on my phone and serving up ads based on what they were seeing around me. The poster and I went back and forth with him calling me paranoid and simply...wrong.

I'll take that apology if you're reading this! Whenever you're ready, I'll wait, lol. Privacy in 2019 simply isn't a thing and anyone who thinks this is a "bug" or wasn't happening in earlier versions of iOS...I have a bridge to sell you.

And I guarantee you it isn't just Facebook that's doing it. Not a chance.
 
I am sure someone "accidentally" typed in something like:
Create new image layer
Open a new ad and set to width of screen
Set new image on that layer
Open Camera app
Move camera app behind image layer
Harvest data from having camera on

I accidentally typed that whole thing while thinking of what to say next in this thread which was...
Could this be a work around for people who do not share location data? Instead it takes a picture and then gets the location data from that image?

<sarcasm> So yeah, it makes perfect sense that the coding wizards at Facebook made the same mistake but with actual functioning code.</sarcasm>

Yes, we need to hold companies to the same standards we hold people. If I "accidentally" turned on the camera of some teenage girl, I would be UNDER the jail digging a sub-basement in hell faster than I could say it was a bug.
 
drumcat said:
Let's celebrate that little red bar... without it, who notices?
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What little red bar (in the context of all of this)?
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Bawstun said:
Can't remember what forums user it was, but somewhere not too long ago we were debating whether or not this was a thing. I was being served advertisements for both water & cologne that I had *NEVER* searched in any browser app. I was convinced that apps were using my camera or mic on my phone and serving up ads based on what they were seeing around me. The poster and I went back and forth with him calling me paranoid and simply...wrong.

I'll take that apology if you're reading this! Whenever you're ready, I'll wait, lol. Privacy in 2019 simply isn't a thing and anyone who thinks this is a "bug" or wasn't happening in earlier versions of iOS...I have a bridge to sell you.

And I guarantee you it isn't just Facebook that's doing it. Not a chance.
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This doesn't really show that this was doing anything like that. Simply that it could be -- the same type of possibility that was there before this as well.
 
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Sounds like a bug in iOS. Camera should be associated with a visible canvas on screen in apps, and when that canvas is no visible anymore the camera should cease to work.
 
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MacRumors said:



The Facebook for iOS app appears to be accessing the iPhone or iPad's camera in the background when the app is in use, according to multiple reports on Twitter.

facebookbug.jpg

The sliver of brown in this demo photo is the Facebook app accessing the camera behind the timeline.​

When scrolling through the Facebook timeline, several users saw the camera activated in the background, as demonstrated in the tweets below.



​

One Facebook user found it through an interface bug that shows a small sliver of the display when looking at a photo, while another found it when rotating a device.

Both The Next Web and CNET were able to reproduce the issue and confirmed that the camera is activated in the background when using Facebook on iOS. The issue appears to impact iPhones running iOS 13, including the newest release version of iOS 13, iOS 13.2.2. Devices running iOS 12 do not appear to be impacted.

Facebook vice president of integrity Guy Rosen this morning said that it "sounds like a bug" and that Facebook is looking into it, but Facebook has not officially commented on the issue.

​

Security researcher Will Strafach told TechCrunch that it appears to be a "harmless but creepy looking bug."

For the Facebook app to access the camera in the background, camera and microphone access must be enabled in the Settings app. Those concerned about the bug can disable Facebook's access to these features on the iPhone and the iPad, or delete the Facebook app.

Article Link: Bug in Facebook App Accesses the Camera in the Background
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I only access fb via safari. there is no need for an app.
 
Why hasn’t the Facebook app banned for being a malware?
I don’t install the Facebook app on my iPhone. It’s a major battery drainer for no reason. And now this? It’s time the app needs to be banned.
 
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