Apple issued an apology Friday for a massive FaceTime app glitch that allowed users to hear or see a person they were calling into a group chat, even if that person hadn’t accepted the call.
“We sincerely apologize to our customers who were affected and all who were concerned about this security issue,” Apple said in a statement to CNBC. “We appreciate everyone’s patience as we complete this process.”
Apple temporarily disabled Group FaceTime on Tuesday, expecting to relaunch the feature this week. Although the company asserted in today’s statement that is has identified and fixed the “security bug,” it won’t issue be issuing a software update or re-enable the feature until next week.
The eavesdropping glitch was first reported to Apple’s by 14-year-old Grant Thompson, first discovered the issue nine days before the tech giant commented on the bug. According to CNN, Thompson’s mother, Michele, “reported the issue to Apple in multiple ways, from email and phone calls to sending the company a fax, but it failed to respond.”
More than a week later, the tech giant made sure to publicly acknowledge them in its statement, writing, “We thank the Thompson family for reporting the bug.”
But Apple might have to deal with the glitch long after it’s fixed. Texas lawyer Larry Williams II has filed a lawsuit against Apple, alleging that the glitch allowed an unknown party eavesdrop on a conversation he was having with his client. According to his complaint, this was a violation of “one’s most intimate conversations without consent.”
