When iPhone 4 was introduced

When iPhone 4 was introduced, pretty much everyone was excited by the prospect of multimedia phone sex via the then-new feature, FaceTime.

But on the internet, a handful of iPhone 4 users are reporting a bug that causes their devices to snap unauthorized pictures of them while they use the feature- and some even say the glitch occurred when they were not using FaceTime. Sample size is still small, but it’s a potential complication of which users should be aware if they plan to use FaceTime, particularly in public.

Apple Support Forum user nasetron says he/she has investigated the issue, even swapping out the original device for a new iPhone 4 that turned out the have the same glitch:

I’m having the exact same problem. Very creepy for my phone to be taking pictures of me when I haven’t told it to. I’ve talked with Apple support about this, and they had me restore my iPhone and set it up as a new device… so instead of reloading everything from a backup, I manually reinstalled all my apps and settings.

The problem didn’t go away after that, so they actually had me return it to an Apple store and swap it out for a new one. This also didn’t help. In my mind, I think these facts narrow the issue down to either the firmware (I’m on 4.3, haven’t yet updated to 4.3.1) or some app I have installed.

Nasetron continues:

Some of the images that have been coming up on mine are from times and places when I know without a doubt that I haven’t been using facetime.

Aside from phones becoming sentient, there doesn’t seem to be any explanation for the strange and troubling phone behavior. Have you experienced the FaceTime glitch?