Facebook investigates ‘bug’ with active iPhone camera when scrolling through timeline

A Facebook CEO says using the iPhone camera when scrolling through the timeline is likely a bug and says it is being investigated. Users discovered in recent weeks that the camera is active while viewing the timeline.

Guy Rosen, vice president of integrity at Facebook, respond to the discovery on Tuesday from a Twitter user. For the time being, it is the first reaction from the social network to the incident. In recent days, several news sites have reported that an iPhone’s camera appears to be active when scrolling through the news feed on Facebook.

In early November, a Twitter user already reported. That person watched a video on Facebook and when tilting the phone saw the viewfinder of the camera appear. Last weekend discovered web designer Joshua Maddux that the camera is also visible in the background by viewing a photo on the timeline and dragging it down a bit.

Maddox says he can reproduce this on five iPhones running iOS 13.2.2. The camera image is not visible on iPhones with iOS 12. There are no indications or evidence that the camera actually records the image and sends it to Facebook. It occurs with users who have already given the app permission to use the camera. As soon as users revoke that permission, the camera is no longer active when using the app.