Beware iPhone/iPad Users: Facebook Secretly Opens Camera Without Your Kowledge

A recent report claims that Facebook may be actively using your camera while you are unknowingly scrolling your feed. The latest issue surfaced after web designer Joshua Maddux shared on Twitter about the most recent unusual behavior he experienced in the Facebook app on iOS. Maddux has discovered that the Facebook app on iOS is activating the iPhone camera while he was scrolling his feed.

In the video that the web designer shared on Twitter, you can see that the camera is actively working on the background while the user was scrolling his feed on the social networking site. The same issue was found in five different devices with others able to replicate. While the web designer found the same problem on five devices running on iOS 13.2.2, he was unable to reproduce it on a device running on iOS 12. TNW has almost the same findings as Maddux, and further shared that the issue does not seem to affect iOS 13.1.3.

Furthermore, the issue only takes place on devices that have allowed the Facebook app access to the camera, TNW revealed. For devices that have not authorized the app to access their devices’ camera, the app attempts to access it, but iOS blocks it, TNW added. At this point, it is still not clear if this is an expected behavior or just a bug in the software for iOS.

Regardless of the reason, this particular behavior is alarming given the track record of the social networking site in terms of user privacy. Users must be aware that any iOS app granted access to the device’s camera can secretly record the user. It can be recalled that in 2017, researcher Felix Krause also revealed the same issue.

During that time, the researcher explained that one way to remedy concern about privacy is to revoke camera access. While it may not offer a smooth software experience, it will save the user the trouble of worrying about privacy or security. Facebook has not yet released any comment about the latest issue.