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April 6th, 2011, 11:03 GMT · By

FaceTime Spooks iPhone Users by Secretly Taking Their Picture

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FaceTime works between iPhones, iPads and iPod touch devices, as well as Macs
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A thread on the Apple Discussions forum that’s sure to draw some attention reveals that FaceTime on iOS may be seriously flawed. The app seemingly stores stills from previous video chatting sessions and shows them whenever a new FaceTime call is initiated.

Granted, it is the owner of the phone who sees the spooky image of himself/herself, but what would happen if someone lost their iPhone after doing some naughty FaceTiming with their lover?

Here’s the story, as explained by Apple Discussions users in a thread started April 5th:

“My boyfriend and I have both recently experienced this problem several times - when one of us is calling the other via FaceTime, an old picture freezes on our screen, while the person receiving the call only sees a black screen.

It's kind of creepy, because it brought up photos of both of us at work, where I have used FaceTime a few times but he never has.
[…]
It's not terribly inconvenient, but it's definitely unsettling, where is seems that even if we haven't taken a picture or used FaceTime, the camera is keeping images. If anyone else is experiencing this, we'd love feedback. Thanks!”


Another iPhone 4 owner corroborates the story, saying “This is very weird. I am experiencing the exact same issue recently.”

“Most notably just minutes ago when i called my GF and i saw a ‘picture’ of myself from today when i was at the office,” he explains.

“I know it was from today because i had the exact same shirt. The weirdest thing is that picture is not stored on my iphone.”

A person experiencing the same problem says he contacted Apple on the matter. The company’s technicians instructed him to restore his iPhone.

The problem didn’t go away, even after they swapped his phone for a new one.

“In my mind, I think these facts narrow the issue down to either the firmware (I'm on 4.3, haven't yet updated to 4.3.1) or some app I have installed,”
this user wrote.

Has anyone here had a similar experience? Use the comments to share your story.

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READER COMMENTS:


Comment #1 by: uuh on 07 Apr 2011, 02:30 UTC reply to this comment

its kind of unsettling to have mac products around all the time in general! They all have cameras and mics

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