The Next Web reports that House
Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman and Commerce
Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee Chair G.K. Butterfield have sent a
letter to Apple's CEO Tim Cook regarding the privacy issue that was
raised when a developer in Singapore discovered that Path uploads the address book to their servers.
Path has since apologized for the lack
of foresight, released an update version of the app, which explicitly
requests users for permission to upload their address book to its
servers and has also deleted all the address book data uploaded prior to
that from its servers.
But while Path has taken majority of the
blame for the privacy issue, it is not the only company that uploaded
or uploads the address book to its servers without taking permission
from users. Instagram - a popular camera app quietly released an update that added privacy controls (as they uploaded the address book without permission as well) along with some new features.
Twitter confessed earlier today that it uploads the address book to their servers and stores the data for 18 months.
The Next Web reports:
In a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, the legislators state:
This incident raises questions about whether Apple’s iOS app developer policies and practices may fall short when it comes to protecting the information of iPhone users and their contacts.
Butterfield and
Waxman then quote parts of Apple’s iOS developer website which states
that Apple provides a comprehensive collection of tools and frameworks
for storing, accessing and sharing data. It is then questioned whether
Apple requires apps to request user permission before transmitting data
about a user.
The letter then
quotes Dustin Curtis’ article, Stealing Your Address Book, which states:
“there’s a quiet understanding among many iOS app developers that it is
acceptable to send a user’s entire address book, without their
permission,” and a report that app developers may stores the contact
details for Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison and Bill Gates.
Waxman and Butterfield have also asked Tim Cook to respond to a number of questions, which according to them will help them understand and access the claims.
We won't be surprised if privacy regulators in other countries also contact Apple. Last year, Apple had to respond to the iPhone and iPad 3G location tracking issue, which had also raised privacy concerns.
[via The Next Web]
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