Facebook’s iPhone App Is Secretly Using Your Camera As You Scroll

Facebook doesn’t have a great track record when it comes to user privacy. A Facebook user by the name of Joshua Maddux revealed that the company’s iOS app runs the camera in the background. It appears to happen while scrolling through your Facebook news feed, and Maddux shared a recording of it online.

In the recording (below), you can see the camera working in the background. The feed appears as a tiny sliver on the left side of the screen and appears after opening a photo and swiping down.

Found a @facebook #security & #privacy issue. When the app is open it actively uses the camera. I found a bug in the app that lets you see the camera open behind your feed. Note that I had the camera pointed at the carpet. pic.twitter.com/B8b9oE1nbl
— Joshua Maddux (@JoshuaMaddux) November 10, 2019

Given Facebook’s poor track record protecting user privacy, some consider this to be yet another reason to leave the platform. Facebook’s Guy Rosen acknowledged on Twitter that there is indeed a bug where the app “partially navigates to the camera screen when a photo is tapped.”

Facebook has already submitted a fix to the App Store, and says it found no evidence the bug could lead to photos or videos being uploaded in the background. The bug is reportedly present on iPhones running iOS 13.2.2 but phones with iOS 13.1.3 don’t have the issue. Luckily, the issue isn’t present on Android.

The news comes just as the social giant revealed its own payment service that works with Messenger and Facebook, with plans to extend the functionality to WhatsApp and Instagram.