Apple cleared in Group FaceTime ‘eavesdropping’ glitch

Apple has won a lawsuit over a FaceTime eavesdropping bug. Houston lawyer Larry Williams III sued the tech giant, claiming that the glitch allowed an unknown person to listen in on sworn testimony, reports MacRumors.

A Group FaceTime glitch was discovered in February. Apple fixed it with iOS 12.1.4.

The exploit let iPhones users listen to conversations of others who hadn’t yet accepted a video call. Here’s how it worked: the caller started a FaceTime video call with a contact. While the call was “ringing,” the caller added themselves manually to the call by tapping Add Person then entering the phone number that the call is being made from. A Group FaceTime call was started with the caller, with the original recipient’s audio streaming before the call is accepted.

Williams sued Apple the day after the exploit was discovered. However, per MacRumors, a court didn’t find Williams’ argument that the FaceTime vulnerability was “unreasonably dangerous” to be valid, nor did the court believe that he provided sufficient evidence to prove that Apple knew of the defect.