Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

Worried about the eavesdropping bug? Here’s how to disable FaceTime on your Mac

Arif Bacchus
By
how to use Split View on a Mac
Image used with permission by copyright holder

A serious flaw recently discovered in Apple’s FaceTime feature allows users to eavesdrop on the person they’re calling — even before they’ve answered. Though iPhone users are the ones primarily affected by the bug, the issue also occurs when receiving calls on MacOS. Apple has since taken FaceTime group calling offline to help address any privacy concerns, but disabling FaceTime might be the best way for users to avoid any issues until a fix is sent out. Here’s how to do that on your iPhone, MacBook, iMac, or Mac Mini.

To get started, open up the FaceTime app and then click on FaceTime on the upper-left hand side of the screen in the menu bar. Next, select Turn FaceTime off.  This disables FaceTime on an individual MacOS device only; if you own multiple devices, you will need to repeat the process again on each. You also can take the extreme step of disabling FaceTime entirely by signing out of your account on each device. To do this, choose FaceTime from the menu bar, click Preferences, and then click Settings and Sign Out.  

Recommended Videos

According to Apple, signing out of FaceTime will turn off all calls until you sign in again. If you want to stay signed in to FaceTime, but just stop receiving calls, you can turn FaceTime off. If someone happens to call you, turning off FaceTime will just disable notifications for the call. To the caller, it will look like you’re not answering.

Related

The process of disabling FaceTime is similar on iPhone. Simply open settings, scroll down to FaceTime, and switch the green FaceTime switch off.  If you’re concerned about the bug and have since disabled FaceTime, there are many alternate video chatting apps available across both MacOS and iOS. These include Skype, Google Duo, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp.

Numerous iPhone owners have taken to social media, showing they have been able to replicate the eavesdropping bug. Apple has since issued a statement, saying it is aware of the issue and has identified a fix that will be coming in a software update later this week. That’s still not a solid timeline, so it might be best to live without FaceTime for a few days until the update goes live.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Arif Bacchus
Arif Bacchus
Computing Writer
Arif Bacchus is a native New Yorker and a fan of all things technology. Arif works as a freelance writer at Digital Trends…
Apple quietly backtracks on the MacBook Air’s biggest issue
The MacBook Air on a white table.

The new MacBook Air with M3 chip not only allows you to use it with two external displays, but it has also reportedly addressed a storage problem that plagued the previous M2 model. The laptop now finally has much faster storage performance since Apple has switched back to using two 128GB NAND modules instead of a single 256GB module on the SSD drive.

This was discovered by the YouTuber Max Tech, who tore down the entry-level model of the MacBook Air M3 with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. In his tests, thanks to the two NAND modules, the M3 MacBook Air is nearly double faster than the M2 MacBook Air. Blackmagic Disk Speed tests show that the older M2 model with the problematic NAND chip had a 1584.3 Mb/s write speed, and the newer M3 model had 2108.9 Mb/s for the M3 model, for a 33% difference. In read speeds, it was 1576.4 Mb/s on the old model and 2880.2 Mb/s on the newer model.

Read more
The 6 best ways Macs work with your other Apple devices
A person holds an iPhone in front of a MacBook.

One of the best things about using more than one Apple device is the way they interact with each other. Apple has built all kinds of clever features into its famous ecosystem, and it means your devices all work together in a way that you just don’t get from any other manufacturer.

AirDrop might be the ultimate expression of this, though that's fairly well-known. Here, we’ve picked out six other great ways your Mac works with other Apple products. Most require you to have Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled, as well as for you to be using the same Apple ID on all your devices. Check the System Settings app on your devices to make sure the specific features are enabled, although most should be by default.

Read more
I never knew I needed this mini Mac app, but now I can’t live without it
Apple MacBook Pro 16 downward view showing keyboard and speaker.

Switching apps is something I do countless times every day on my Mac, so much so that I don’t ever think anything of it. That is until recently, when I discovered a new app that has me flipping windows in a new (and much-improved) way.

That app is called Quick Tab, and it’s designed to make app switching a little more painless. Now, I’ll admit that I’ve never thought of the traditional Command-Tab key combination as all that painful, but Quick Tab has swiftly shown me what I’ve been missing.

Read more