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<\/p>\nRUSH: All right. Let me deal with this — the iPhone, the Apple FaceTime issue — real quick and get rid of that. Because it\u2019s like so much else in the news. It\u2019s being amplified, it\u2019s being hyped, and it\u2019s scaring people into thinking that everybody\u2019s spying on \u2019em and nobody has any privacy. I just recoil at what the media has become. It\u2019s one crisis… It\u2019s one fearmongering episode, scaremongering episode after another. Let me ask you a question. How many of you, A, use Group FaceTime? Group FaceTime is new.<\/p>\n
It was just turned on and made active as an issue late last year. Group FaceTime on your iPhone, on your iPad — and we\u2019ll throw the Mac in, although… You can have conversation up to 32 different people at the same time. How many of you have implemented Group FaceTime? It\u2019s built in so all you have to do after you connect with somebody else, then you add another, you add another. How many of you have used it? Okay. Probably not all that many, but some of you have. Next thing. Next question.<\/p>\n
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How many of you, when using Group FaceTime, add yourself to the conversation? Answer: Zero! You\u2019re already in it when you initiate the FaceTime. How many of you are then gonna go back and add yourself? The answer is none of you, on your own. Well, that\u2019s what you have to do to trigger the bug. A 14-year-old kid discovered it and told Apple about it a week before Apple acknowledged it. (That\u2019s a whole ‘nother thing I\u2019ll get to here in just a second.) So here\u2019s the bug. You initiate a Group FaceTime call by calling somebody.<\/p>\n
And then you add yourself. And before they even answer, you can hear them on their iPhone. But you have to add yourself to the call. Nobody is going to add themselves to the call — until they learn about this. Like if you\u2019re gonna FaceTime your mom, you FaceTime your mom. That\u2019s it! You\u2019re not gonna go add yourself. You\u2019re already there. But you have to add yourself before the person you\u2019re calling answers in order for their phone to be activated so you can hear what they are saying.<\/p>\n
Apple has turned Group FaceTime off. You cannot do the bug. They\u2019re in the process of fixing it. They\u2019ll have a software update later this week, they say, that\u2019s going to fix this. It\u2019s not a major deal. By itself it is. I can tell you of all the times I use FaceTime, I never add myself to it. I\u2019m already there. I\u2019m the guy originating it, and you have to be the originator here. So you put in the name or number of the person you\u2019re FaceTiming, works through audio and or video, and then immediately add yourself.<\/p>\n
And for some reason, that then activated the phone of the person you were calling before they even answered it. So you could hear what they were saying, if they were saying anything. And you could see what they were doing if they were doing anything. But the moment they answered, all that ended. So you had, what, five or 10 seconds, maybe, of spying on people. But there\u2019s no way you stumble across this — except this 14-year-old kid did \u2019cause they\u2019re always playing around with things.<\/p>\n
So here\u2019s the next phase of this. The 14-year-old kid and his mom get hold of Apple support (this is a week ago) and they tell \u2019em, “You\u2019ve got a problem here,” and they demonstrate it. Now, the person on the other end at Apple thinks he\u2019s talking to a couple of, you know, plebe dimwits that don\u2019t know what they\u2019re talking about, and you know what he tells \u2019em to do? He tells this woman, who is not a techie, “Well, you have to set up a developer account before you can report a bug.” She says, “What?”<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/APP-050218-Apple-Store-001.jpg\")
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“Yeah, you have to go to the developer page, it costs $99 a year, and you have to set up a developer account and then submit what Apple calls ‘a radar bug.'” I am certain that this guy at tech support never thought this woman would do this. It was a way of getting rid of her. Tech is the most amazing thing. The people that design it and use it think most of us don\u2019t know the first thing about it, and so whatever problem we report to them, they think it\u2019s our stupidity and ignorance and they take very little of it seriously, unless you actually walk into an Apple store and show them the problem. But if you\u2019re just doing this with phone calls and emails…<\/p>\n
Well, the woman did it. The woman actually set up the developer account and filed a bug report and sent a video demonstrating the bug, and then Apple went into gear yesterday. I don\u2019t know if that tech support guy got demoted or if he\u2019s still there, but I know exactly how this works. Here\u2019s a woman from wherever she was from. (paraphrased exchange) “My 14-year-old son just found something, that if he adds himself to a FaceTime call, we can hear the people we\u2019re calling before they answer,” and the guy answers.<\/p>\n
“Right, lady. Right. Do I have to keep putting up with these idiots on the phone? Why am I doing tech support? Okay, lady, here\u2019s what you do. You got to go to our developer page.” “What\u2019s that? I don\u2019t know what a developer page is.” “Here\u2019s the website. Go to the developer page, set up your developer account, and then you can file a radar report.” “What\u2019s a radar report?” “Well, it\u2019s what we call bug reports. Submit a video, fill out the form…”<\/p>\n
Submitting one of these radar reports, folks, is a rather involved process with evidence and videos and still shots and audios and all that to document and demonstrate whatever bug you\u2019re reporting. Well, this woman did it! I\u2019m sure the guy on the phone never thought she would. So, anyway, Apple had to take it for what it is, and once the tech blogs got hold of this, then everybody found out about the bug and everybody started using the bug. But other than that, nobody would have ever known it existed because nobody is gonna add themselves to a FaceTime call.<\/p>\n
Some people might do it by accident. And then if they heard the person on the other end they were calling before the other person answered, they\u2019re not gonna think anything\u2019s odd about it. Well, they\u2019ll think it\u2019s odd but they\u2019re not gonna think bug and they\u2019ll just let it go. But this 14-year-old kid knew something was not right here, told his mom, and they followed it down. So now Apple is fixing it, and the embarrassing thing for Apple is that they have staked their claim to privacy.<\/p>\n
Of all the other phone manufacturers, all the other tech companies — you know, via Facebook and Twitter — Apple! They have a big banner advertisement at the CES show in Las Vegas in January. “What happens on your iPhone stays on your iPhone.” Well, apparently not in Group FaceTime calls. But it\u2019s nothing to panic, folks. They\u2019re gonna fix it. It\u2019s gonna be up and running. They\u2019ll get rid of it, they say, by the end of the week. It\u2019s not something that you would have discovered in normal usage of your iPad or iPhone.<\/p>\n
But Apple in the media is like conservatives and the Republican Party is in the media. Whenever there is an opportunity to blow \u2019em up, the media is on the case. Blow it up and amplify it and scare people is exactly what\u2019s going on here. But there hardly is any reason to ever panic over any of these privacy bugs, these security bugs, because they all get patched eventually, they all get fixed. And nobody is… I can\u2019t say “nobody,” but I\u2019m sure the people of Apple are not spying to follow you calling Aunt Mabel and wanting to hear what Aunt Mabel says before she answers your call.<\/p>\n
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Nothing against Aunt Mabel. I mean, there are just better things to do out there with your time than follow people around as they\u2019re using your devices. But, you know, I still run into people that will not give up the “home” button. They will not get a new 10 Series phone because they don\u2019t like Face ID. They just don\u2019t trust it. No matter what you tell \u2019em — and I do. (sigh) “It\u2019s not really a picture. It\u2019s a 3D map. It stays on your phone. It doesn\u2019t go anywhere. Nobody else can use it.”<\/p>\n
“What about if I\u2019m asleep and somebody gets into my room? (sputtering) Can they just get my phone and point it at me and wake the phone up?” “No. Your eyes have to be open. You have to be awake.” “Really? I don\u2019t believe that!” Eh. I think I know what it is. I do think that there\u2019s a lot of muscle memory familiarity with the “home” button. It\u2019s been 10 years. People don\u2019t want to give it up. “Face ID? I don\u2019t know. It makes me feel nervous.” A lot of people think they\u2019re ugly. Let\u2019s be honest. A lot of people think they\u2019re ugly and don\u2019t want things based on their face.<\/p>\n
A lot of people have self-image problems, as you well know. (panicked) “My face is on there? I — I — I — I — I don\u2019t want that!” And then there are some people that won\u2019t even use the fingerprint ID. They\u2019ll manually enter their four- or six-digit code every time they unlock the phone because they don\u2019t trust any of these unlocking features, these security features. But on the FaceTime, you can\u2019t implement it now because Apple has shut that down. Group FaceTime has been deactivated and it won\u2019t come back up until they\u2019ve got this bug fixed.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: This FaceTime, this Group FaceTime issue… I don\u2019t know if I should mention this, but it\u2019s such a nothing issue. The same thing happens if you do a remote-control session via the messages app. The messages app has a screen share feature, and people use it to help their friends diagnose problems. So if you\u2019re an expert and you got a friend who\u2019s not, you can share their screen. You can go into their system (with their permission, of course) and then you can help diagnose what\u2019s wrong with their device. This is via the Mac, primarily.<\/p>\n
And when you initiate one of these screen-sharing sessions via remote control, you can hear people on the other end. You can hear the person you\u2019re trying to connect to for two to 10 seconds before the connection is actually established, before they get a note that you\u2019ve called, you know, a ring and answer. It\u2019s a nothing issue!<\/p>\n
It is blown-up into a major security hole. (sigh) The media is so damned irresponsible in what they\u2019ve done in the overall American mind-set when it comes to just the daily acceptance that life has become a never-ending crisis filled with never-ending chaos. This is why if you ever take my advice and go off the grid for just a weekend — if you can\u2019t go a full week, just a weekend — you\u2019ll be amazed at how your life changes when you are not subjecting yourself to media bombardment so many hours of your waking day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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