How to disable FaceTime

Yves Herman | Reuters

Apple CEO Tim Cook delivers a keynote during the European Union’s privacy conference at the EU Parliament in Brussels, Belgium October 24, 2018.

There’s a massive privacy bug on iPhones that lets people call you with FaceTime to hear you and see you — even if you don’t pick up the call.

Here’s the gist of how it works: Using the bug, someone can listen in or see you through your iPhone.

Apple said a fix is on the way, but here’s how you can turn off FaceTime on your iPhone to prevent anyone from trying to snoop on you in the meantime.

• Open Settings.
• Choose FaceTime.
• Toggle the button so that FaceTime is off (there’s no green showing.)

That’s it. I tested it on my own iPhone and it stopped FaceTime calls from coming in entirely, so nobody could just listen in or try to watch me through my iPhone’s camera.

Here’s the full response Apple provided to CNBC: “We’re aware of this issue and we have identified a fix that will be released in a software update later this week.”