Apple received a lot of flak this week for a security bug which allowed iOS users to eavesdrop on each other through Group FaceTime calls. Even if the person receiving the call did not answer, the callers would still be able to hear them on the other end (and vice versa). Apple disabled Group FaceTime on the server-side as quick fix, but told users that a software update with a permanent solution would roll out this week.
That was apparently too optimistic, as Apple revealed on Friday morning that the software update has been delayed to next week. Here’s the full quote that Apple provided to MacRumors regarding the delay:
We have fixed the Group FaceTime security bug on Apple’s servers and we will issue a software update to re-enable the feature for users next week. We thank the Thompson family for reporting the bug. We sincerely apologize to our customers who were affected and all who were concerned about this security issue. We appreciate everyone’s patience as we complete this process.
We want to assure our customers that as soon as our engineering team became aware of the details necessary to reproduce the bug, they quickly disabled Group FaceTime and began work on the fix. We are committed to improving the process by which we receive and escalate these reports, in order to get them to the right people as fast as possible. We take the security of our products extremely seriously and we are committed to continuing to earn the trust Apple customers place in us.
Apple went out of its way to thank the Thompson family, who reportedly attempted to alert Apple about the bug over a week before the internet at large became aware of it. Apple is no stranger to controversy, but in an era when everyone is convinced that their privacy isn’t being taken as seriously as it should be by major corporations (understandably so), it’s not surprising that Apple wanted to get out ahead of this one as quickly as possible.
