GOOGLE: The Wall Street Journal Is Full Of Crap—Here's What That Apple Safari 'Tracking' Was Really About. Apple’s iOS problem: Contacts uploading is just the tip of the iceberg. Apps can upload all your photos, calendars or record conversations. Apple responded today to the contacts-sharing issue with a statement indicating it plans to put some form of a setting on contact data that would allow users to control who views the data, similar to the way Apple locks down location data.
“Apps that collect or transmit a user’s contact data without their prior permission are in violation of our guidelines. We’re working to make this even better for our customers, and as we have done with location services, any app wishing to access contact data will require explicit user approval in a future software release.” Congress became involved and probably motivated the move, but the legislative body is not going to like what it hears. The problem is that iOS apps not only have access to a user’s contacts database (including addresses and notes), but apps also have full and unencumbered access to everything in the iOS app sandbox, such as pictures, music, movies, calendars, and a host of other data.
To developers, this is no big secret. FTC: Apps for Children Raise Privacy Concerns. Mobile application marketplaces, developers and service providers need to do a better job of protecting children's privacy, according to an Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report released Thursday. The report was based on an FTC survey that found mobile apps for children aren't upfront about what they're doing with user data. “At the FTC, one of our highest priorities is protecting children’s privacy, and parents deserve the tools to help them do that,” said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz in a statement. "Right now, it is almost impossible to figure out which apps collect data and what they do with it.
The kids app ecosystem needs to wake up, and we want to work collaboratively with industry to help ensure parents have the information they need.” Smartphone users had about 800 apps to choose from in 2008. Mobile apps can collect a wide swath of information about a user, including location, phone number and address book. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, ssj414. Apple and social networks under fire over iPhone privacy. Apple and social networks are under fire for distributing several social media apps through Apple’s iTunes store that harvest iPhone contact information without users’ permission. iPhone apps from social networking sites – including Twitter, Facebook, FourSquare, Instagram, Foodspotting, Path and Yelp – are reported to access the iPhone address book. In a letter to Apple, two US congressmen have called on Apple to explain why it has not blocked the apps, which violate Apple’s user guidelines.
The Apple guidelines say: "Apps that read or write data outside its designated container area will be rejected. " They also say: "Apps cannot transmit data about a user without obtaining the user's prior permission. " The social networking apps' practice was discovered by an app developer in Singapore who noticed his contacts had been copied from his iPhone address book, without his consent, by a social network called Path, according to the BBC. Email Alerts.
iOS apps and the address book: who has your data, and how they're getting it. 130inShare Jump To Close Over the course of the past week, a firestorm has erupted in the world of iOS apps, thanks to the discovery that Path was uploading data from your iPhone's address book without asking for explicit permission. Upon opening the app and registering, Path automatically uploaded your contact data in order to "find friends" that you might want to connect to. Stated simply: any iOS app has complete access to a large amount of data stored on your iPhone, including your address book and calendar.
Over the course of the past day, we have been using the method explained by Arun Thampi (who discovered Path's privacy violation) to investigate several dozen popular iOS apps. Presented below are our findings so far, but we consider this to be an ongoing project. Update: Apple has finally made a statement on the matter, promising a future update to iOS that will require explicit user permission to access contact data. Methodology Egregious offenders Clear Cases Explicit Warners. Your iPhone's Privacy Sucks Because of Apple—and Even Steve Jobs Agrees.