The iOS 14 beta from Apple has been available in different forms for more than a month. One of the novel privacy features of the new iOS includes an alert that notifies iPhone users when the camera is in use by any of the apps that they might have installed on their device.
It is normal for social apps like Instagram to use the camera on your device and hence will receive the alert whenever that happens. However, some people have found that there’s some bug in the new iOS 14 beta which causes this alert to show up on your smartphone screen even when the camera is not in use.
Due to this bug, some people even thought that Instagram might be sneaking in on them. It’s quite understandable as to why Facebook-owned Instagram would like to keep an eye on what is happening around, but Instagram has said it to be a bug rather than some foul play. In their email to The Verge, a spokesperson from Instagram said:
“We only access your camera when you tell us to – for example when you swipe from Feed to Camera. We found and are fixing a bug in iOS 14 Beta that mistakenly indicates that some people are using the camera when they aren’t. We do not access your camera in those instances, and no content is recorded.”
As of now, it is not clear yet as to why iOS 14 would believe Instagram to be accessing your camera when the app is not in use or what might be triggering that alert. It is quite unlikely to find that out either, but given the history of Facebook, it is quite understandable why people are worried about all of this.
Apple will be introducing iOS 14 for the general public this September after weeks of testing in the beta phase. And, as Facebook has said, this ‘Camera On’ alert is a bug that is being worked on, we can expect the final version to not cause this problem.