Twitter user @KevDoy reported that he was seeing a green ‘camera on’ indicator while using Instagram even when he was “casually browsing”, and not taking a photo or video. He wrote that the new iOS 14 beta control panel “ratted out the app”.
There are also reports of other users who have already installed iOS 14 beta that also say the camera’s indicator stays on when the Instagram app is open. However, an Instagram spokesperson says that it was a bug and that it is being fixed.
“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,” the spokesperson said.
Even so, Instagram is just one of the several apps being outed by iOS 14’s alerts. TikTok, LinkedIn, and Reddit were discovered to be accessing users’ clipboard content. Last year, Instagram’s parent company Facebook had a bug in its iOS app that appeared to be activating devices’ cameras in the background without users’ knowledge as well—but it’s been fixed.
