Mobile

Apple just disabled Walkie Talkie app due to potential privacy concerns

Written by Sajeel Syed ·  1 min read >

Looks like Cupertino tech giant has yet another problem at hand and this time it is related to potential privacy abuses.

A major yet unspecified vulnerability in Apple Watch’s Walkie Talkie app could allow a person to listen to another customer’s iPhone without consent. But no worries Apple has disabled the app, according to a statement by the company provided to TechCrunch.

As of now, Apple has not even apologized for the inconvenience faced by users due to this bug but it has also affirmed that software team is working to resolve the issue so it could reinstate the feature soon. As the statement reads;

“We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience and will restore the functionality as soon as possible. Although we are not aware of any use of the vulnerability against a customer and specific conditions and sequences of events are required to exploit it, we take the security and privacy of our customers extremely seriously. We concluded that disabling the app was the right course of action as this bug could allow someone to listen through another customer’s iPhone without consent. We apologize again for this issue and the inconvenience.”

So, the vulnerability that Apple is currently working would have easily allowed someone to listen in to someone else’s iPhone without their consent. It seems like Apple took the right decision of disabling it and now it’s working to even fix the issue and even apologized for the whole situation.

Now, what should you do, if you have an Apple Watch? As the app has been disabled from the back-end server of the company, so you should stay put until the issue has been fixed. However, there is nothing clear on when the problem will be fixed. From the recent incident, it has become evident that Apple has finally started listening more closely to the reports that come in via its vulnerability tips line and has disabled the feature.

Written by Sajeel Syed
I am a writer at TechJuice, overseeing IT, Telecom, Cryptocurrency, and other tech-related features here. When I'm not working, I spend some of my time with good old Xbox 360 and the rest in social activism. Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sajeelshamsi Profile