Apple received lawsuit over FaceTime bug

That was fast. 

A few days after the discovery of a particularly nasty bug in Apple’s FaceTime video chat app — one that allowed for a user to listen and even see the person on the other end of the line before they’ve answered the call — Apple is already getting slammed by lawsuits.

Houston attorney Larry D. Williams II filed a lawsuit on Monday, claiming the bug allowed for someone to eavesdrop on a private deposition he had with a client, Courthouse News reported Tuesday. 

According to the lawsuit, Williams did not mis-use the iPhone in any way, and yet the FaceTime bug “allowed for the recording of a private deposition.”

Furthermore, the lawsuit claims that Apple has “failed to provide sufficient warnings and instructions that would have put Plaintiff and the general public on notice of the dangers and adverse effects caused by the update to iOS 12.1.”

Williams seeks punitive damages against Apple and unknown parties, claiming “product liability, negligence, warranty and fraudulent misrepresentation.”

Apple told Mashable it was aware of the issue on Jan. 28, and the company disabled group FaceTime later that day. effectively neutralizing the bug. The company is expected to issue a fix this week. But there’s evidence that Apple knew — or was at least warned — about the bug as early as Jan. 20, which probably won’t do the company much good regarding this lawsuit. 

The case provides a good illustration of just how devastating the FaceTime bug is. It potentially opened sworn testimonies, confidential doctor-patient conversations and other exchanges that simply must stay private to third parties, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see more lawsuits coming Apple’s way. 

We asked Apple for comment regarding the lawsuit, as well as a possible fix for the issue, and will update this article when we hear from them.