SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Submitted via IRC for Bytram
A significant bug has been discovered in FaceTime and is currently spreading virally over social media. The bug lets you call anyone with FaceTime, and immediately hear the audio coming from their phone — before the person on the other end has accepted or rejected the incoming call. Apple says the issue will be addressed in a software update "later this week". (Update: Apple has taken Group FaceTime offline in an attempt to address the issue in the interim).
Naturally, this poses a pretty privacy problem as you can essentially listen in on any iOS user, although it still rings like normal, so you can't be 100% covert about it. Nevertheless, there is no indication on the recipient's side that you could hear any of their audio.
Update: There's a second part to this which can expose video too ...
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 29 2019, @03:02PM (5 children)
We used to giggle at the "tin foil hat" types who were perennially paranoid about the government spying on them. Nowadays our phones are quite literally listening to us and watching us all the time.
The time has come for a phone that has privacy built in from the start.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 29 2019, @03:14PM
yes. that time has come, but it has also passed. now you get this.
don't like it?
1. get a dumb phone, as long as they're available. and if you believe that they are dumb.
2. don't buy a phone. yell very loudly instead (interestingly, this is what "call" originally meant).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 29 2019, @03:23PM (2 children)
I know. I have one. I dare you to spy on me.
https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_e1120-2711.php [gsmarena.com]
Well, you could put up a GSM station and decrypt the traffic...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 29 2019, @05:26PM
i am buying two of those because they have phenomenal battery life, like a WEEK!
i am going to solder them together and put them in my smart phone.
i suppose they have to put much better batteries in them cheap dumb phones because
that's the only feature that out-classes the expensive smart phones ^_^
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Wednesday January 30 2019, @09:51AM
Isn't that 2G only?
Huh - 2G still lives [wikipedia.org] in some places. Lucky you!
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Lemming on Wednesday January 30 2019, @02:46PM
/e/ (called eelo before) is the privacy-first mobile OS and ecosystem: https://e.foundation/. [e.foundation] As this is not only about the OS, but also all the services ("in the cloud") the device connects to, /e/ offers an ecosystem of services build from open source software, so you can use their servers or you can choose to run your own.