Facebook’s photo-sharing social media service Instagram has promised to fix what it claims is a bug in its app after Apple’s iOS 14 revealed that the app regularly accesses iPhone users’ cameras.
The Verge reports that shortly after the new Apple iOS 14 update revealed that a number of apps were accessing users’ clipboards without their knowledge, it has now revealed that the Instagram app is accessing users’ cameras without their knowledge. Multiple reports across social media claim that the camera’s indicator stays on when Instagram is open even if the user so not suing the camera when scrolling through the photo feed.
Instagram told the Verge in a statement that the issue was a bug, stating:
We only access your camera when you tell us to — for example, when you swipe from Feed to Camera. 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 company claims that sometimes the system understands that the user has swiped their finger on the app to access the in-app camera when this is not the case. The company has promised to fix this issue with a future update of the app.
Casually browsing Instagram when suddenly the new iOS 14 camera/microphone indicator comes on. Then control panel ratted out the app behind it. This is going to change things. #iOS14 pic.twitter.com/EnTIRsqq3R
— KevDoy (@KevDoy) July 17, 2020
Breitbart News recently reported that the online careers platform LinkedIn is being sued in San Francisco Federal Court over allegations that the site’s iOS app spied on users’ actions by snooping on the contents of users’ clipboards. Apple’s Universal Clipboard allows users to copy text, images, photos, and videos on one Apple device and paste that content on another Apple device.
A lawsuit filed by Adam Bauer alleges that LinkedIn’s app accessed the Universal Clipboard information without notifying users. LinkedIn did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters. Breitbart News recently reported that another social media app, Reddit, has promised to release a fix for its iOS app after it was discovered that the app was copying the contents of users’ clipboards. Users that were running the new iOS 14 beta firmware discovered this after receiving a system alert stating that the Reddit app was copying clipboard information. TikTok was also caught spying on users using the same technique.
A Reddit spokesperson said in a statement: “We tracked this down to a codepath in the post composer that checks for URLs in the pasteboard and then suggests a post title based on the text contents of the URL. We do not store or send the pasteboard contents. We removed this code and are releasing the fix on July 14th.” Reddit user Donald Morton posted a video to Twitter which showed the clipboard alerts:
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com
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