iOS 14 Detects Instagram Using Camera without User’s Permission

The long-awaited official iOS 14 update is still a few weeks away from its official release. However, Apple released a public beta version that anyone can download and use before beforehand.

And among all the new features that were showcased during this year’s WWDC, Apple also stated that it’s continuing its stance on keeping user information private and safe from any other person or company. This includes some new security features, including a new recording indicator.

If you have iOS 14, your iPhone will display a green dot next to your battery if any app is using your camera (orange for microphone), and if you go to the Control Center, you’ll see which app is triggering the indicator.

As it turns out, the recording indicator recently notified Twitter user KevDoy that Instagram was using their iPhone camera, even though they weren’t taking any pictures or using the in-app camera.

A spokesperson from Instagram told The Verge that this was only a bug that could have been set off because of the app’s Create Mode, which is accessible from the Instagram Camera. They also stated that swiping into the app’s camera from the main feed could also trigger the recording indicator. Currently, Instagram is working on fixing this issue.

Since iOS 14 is still in its early stages and hasn’t been fully released yet, this could potentially be a bug. Nevertheless, we’ve seen Facebook, the company that owns Instagram, has had problems in the past due to the way they managed it’s users’ information.

Instagram hasn’t been the only app that has experienced this bug. Other popular applications, such as Reddit, LinkedIn, and TikTok were exposed for having similar issues. Recently, iOS 14 detected that these apps were accessing and copying the users’ content on their clipboard. Although this doesn’t necessarily mean they’re spying on their users, the companies also stated that they were fixing this issue.