In what will likely be the first in a string of lawsuits, a Houston, Texas-based lawyer is suing Apple, alleging the recently uncovered FaceTime flaw allowed an unknown individual to listen in on a private conversation with one of their clients.
According to Bloomberg, attorney Larry Williams II said the glitch intruded on “one’s most intimate conversations without consent.”
Williams said he was eavesdropped on while taking sworn testimony during a client deposition.
Bloomberg reported that the Houston-based attorney is seeking punitive damage for “negligence, product liability, misrepresentation and warranty breach.”
It’s unclear exactly how long Apple has been aware of the FaceTime Group Chat glitch given the bug was removed from the latest iOS 12.2 public beta. There’s also evidence that the tech giant was contacted about the issue via multiple avenues prior to news breaking about the bug.
It’s also unclear when Apple plans on releasing a fix for FaceTime’s Group Chat bug, though the company stated it plans to issue an update by the end of this week.
In order for the flaw to take effect, users first needed to launch a conference call, type in someone’s phone number and then add the number of an additional individual.
While waiting for the first person to pick up, if the second participant answers, the audio feed from the first contact will automatically turn on, allowing users to hear what the mic is picking up even if the other person included in the conference call doesn’t answer.
Apple disabled the FaceTime’s Group chat feature on January 29th, 2019.
