Please note: this only applies if you use Apple products – iPhone, iPad or a Mac computer.
We advise you to disable FaceTime. Here’s the why, and how:
You may already have read about a FaceTime bug which allows someone to call your phone through FaceTime and hear your audio before you answer, without you accepting the call.
This means they could theoretically use your phone’s microphone as a listening device until you accept, reject, end the call or it times out.
While that sounds dramatic, it’s not exactly a covert operation: your phone will still ring and you can accept or reject calls as normal. It would only affect you if you didn’t answer or reject the call.
But it’s still a serious concern and while Apple are working on a fix (they’ve already disabled Group FaceTiming in an attempt to block the exlpoit) which should be released later this week, we advise disabling FaceTime:
On an iPhone or iPad, go to Settings, find the FaceTime icon and click the toggle switch to grey. If it’s already grey, then FaceTime is inactive and you don’t need to worry.
On your Mac, open the FaceTime app, click ‘FaceTime’ in the menu bar and choose the option to turn it off.
If you have any problems, questions or concerns please just let us know – reply to this email or call us on 0370 600 9711.
If you’d like to be updated when it’s safe to enable FaceTime again, make sure you’re following us on Twitter where we’ll post an update.
