Instagram claims bug triggered iOS 14 camera notifications when not in use
Instagram has become the latest app to be affected by the additional notifications offered in iOS 14, with an errant activation of the camera and microphone indicator while not actively using the features explained away by the company as a bug.
Apple's privacy-related changes in iOS 14 have caused trouble for many apps already, but a new one to suddenly face scrutiny is Instagram. The Facebook-owned image service was caught by users of the beta to be seemingly activating the camera and microphone indicators during times when the user was generally browsing the app's feed, and not actively requiring the use of the camera or microphone.
The green indicator dot and the additional app-identifying element in the Control Panel was caused by a bug that is being fixed, Instagram told The Verge. The indicator could be triggered by a few elements, such as Instagram's Create Mode or accessing the Camera from the main feed.
"We only access your camera when you tell us to - for example, when you swipe from Feed to Camera," said Instagram. "We found and are fixing a bug in iOS 14 Beta that mistakenly indicates that some people are using the camera when they aren't. We do not access your camera in those instances, and no content is recorded."
The increased privacy protections of iOS 14 have generated news largely based on "Clipboard Snooping," the practice of an app accessing the device's clipboard in cases when a user wouldn't usually expect such access to take place. Apps including TikTok and Reddit were caught snooping via the new notifications, and have asserted fixes and changes would be made in the near future.
In the case of LinkedIn, its clipboard snooping was allegedly tied to a bug in its software, according to an engineer on July 3. By July 11, a lawsuit was filed against LinkedIn for allegedly reading clipboard data, one which is also seeking class-action status.
Apple's privacy-related changes in iOS 14 have caused trouble for many apps already, but a new one to suddenly face scrutiny is Instagram. The Facebook-owned image service was caught by users of the beta to be seemingly activating the camera and microphone indicators during times when the user was generally browsing the app's feed, and not actively requiring the use of the camera or microphone.
The green indicator dot and the additional app-identifying element in the Control Panel was caused by a bug that is being fixed, Instagram told The Verge. The indicator could be triggered by a few elements, such as Instagram's Create Mode or accessing the Camera from the main feed.
"We only access your camera when you tell us to - for example, when you swipe from Feed to Camera," said Instagram. "We found and are fixing a bug in iOS 14 Beta that mistakenly indicates that some people are using the camera when they aren't. We do not access your camera in those instances, and no content is recorded."
The increased privacy protections of iOS 14 have generated news largely based on "Clipboard Snooping," the practice of an app accessing the device's clipboard in cases when a user wouldn't usually expect such access to take place. Apps including TikTok and Reddit were caught snooping via the new notifications, and have asserted fixes and changes would be made in the near future.
In the case of LinkedIn, its clipboard snooping was allegedly tied to a bug in its software, according to an engineer on July 3. By July 11, a lawsuit was filed against LinkedIn for allegedly reading clipboard data, one which is also seeking class-action status.
Comments
”No worries. We’ll issue a statement claiming it’s a bug and then try to find a workaround for this notification.”
”Damn you, iOS 14!!”
It’s a little ironic - by installing Instagram you are literally bugging the OS/device.
all devices.
And it's not unlikely that it was a bug - if your code is triggering any sensor by accident and you never actually grab the input from that sensor, your automated testing will never show a problem. It MIGHT have been caught by stringent user testing, but that's expensive and most devs these days seem to regard it as unnecessary and old-fashioned. There was an Excel bug about a decade ago where the displayed value for a cell was incorrect for a certain calculation, and it wasn't discovered until after the app shipped because the internal representation was fine. Sometimes you just don't discover the problem until a million monkeys have been hammering at it for a while.
All that said, for a company the size of FaceBook (and with the history of FaceBook), it's a very embarrassing situation and I am not surprised that the default public reaction is... *ahem* skepticism.