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    Apple says that uploading address books is a violation of iOS policy

    By Kelly Montgomery | Digital Trends – Thu, Feb 16, 2012

    In the wake of the Path privacy debacle, in which we learned that the social networking app was uploading and storing users’ entire address books, we questioned whether Apple and its policies were partly to blame for the situation. While the developer guidelines may have been fuzzy enough that we can’t fully answer that question, today Apple has issued a statement on the topic that makes the company’s intentions a little more clear. 

    The problem stems from the fact that Apple’s developer guidelines have mainly been used to prevent apps from tracking and saving information about a user’s location without that user’s explicit permission. Within its iOS app guidelines Apple says, “Apps cannot transmit data about a user without obtaining the user’s prior permission and providing the user with access to information about how and where the data will be used.” After reading that our question was what constitutes “data about a user”? Do address books fall into that category? The vague language here may be why Path and several other apps slipped by unnoticed. 

    Yesterday an Apple spokesperson, Tom Neumayr, told AllThingsD “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.” So while we can’t say what Apple’s intentions were in the first place, they’ve made it clear that from here on out, they expect apps to explicitly ask for permission before uploading users’ address books like Path. 

    In response to the outrage, Path has added an option within the app to allow users to opt-in to uploading their address books. It certainly makes us wonder just how safe our information is when we regularly use apps for everything from maps to finances to photos. At least after today we have a clearer picture of what Apple expects from its developers. 

    This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

    More from Digital Trends

    All your contacts are belong to us: What apps are uploading your address book and why

    Pay for play: Are marketers manipulating Apple’s App Store rankings?

    Path privacy debacle: Is Apple to blame?

    Angry Birds and Facebook among most downloaded iPhone apps of 2011

     

    7 comments

    • William S
      William S  •  Las Vegas, Nevada  •  3 mths ago
      Apple is a violation, period.
      Screw Apple!
    • John
      John  •  Surfside, California  •  3 mths ago
      As we used to say in the NSA...if it is connected, it is compromised.
    • Robert
      Robert  •  Guangzhou, China  •  3 mths ago
      visible vrs invisible application violations. It is only the beginning in a camflauged effort to acquire peoples personnel information.
    • NSWG-ST6
      NSWG-ST6  •  3 mths ago
      Since Apple has such control over everything on their products, all Apple has to do is disable the apps that are in violation if they are serious about this. That will get the attention of the violators and anyone thinking about it.
    • hz
      hz  •  3 mths ago
      they will just add another line to the privacy policy and people will just click the "accept" button like they do on all of the FB apps!
    • HighYieldNuclearDevice
      HighYieldNuclearDevice  •  3 mths ago
      Most people carry around a device with a microphone, camera, GPS tracking and most of their contacts everywhere they go. Worst of all its connected to other machines 24/7.
    • Dervick
      Dervick  •  3 mths ago
      Beware of electronic devices that communicate with other electronic devices...
     Post a comment
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