Apple has today released an update on the FaceTime eavesdropping bug and offered an apology. The company says it has patched the flaw on its servers and will roll out an update to iOS users next week to bring back Group FaceTime with the bug fixed. It also makes a promise to improve how it handles bug reports and its escalation process.
Apple’s statement says 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.” But many feel the response was anything but quick.
Apple took Group FaceTime offline several hours after we detailed the bug as it was spreading across social media on January 28th. However, the Thompson’s have shown evidence that they shared the flaw and how it worked with Apple from January 22nd onwards in multiple emails and a YouTube video.
Notably, it’s good to see Apple’s apology highlight its serious need to evolve how it handles escalating bug reports like these to tackle them in a much more efficient manner.
