Reports: Apple to tighten app privacy rules
February 17, 2012
Apple will require application developers to
obtain explicit permission from iPhone and iPad users before they can store the
users' contact lists, according to several media reports.
The tech giant's decision was
reportedly a response to a letter drafted last week by Reps. Henry Waxman
(D-Calif.) and G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) — both of whom serve on the House's
Energy and Commerce Committee — and sent to Apple CEO Tim Cook, asking for
clarification regarding Apple's developer guidelines and asking whether privacy
guidelines were being followed, MacNewsWorld reported. Although those guidelines
are supposed to restrict the collection of user data, Apple reportedly said it
will be more specific in explaining that contact lists cannot be accessed and
stored without user consent.
The letter was reportedly spurred by
the discovery of the loophole in the social networking app Path by iOS
developer Arun Thampi, who then blogged about it, according to The Chicago Tribune.
Twitter, Foursquare, Path and Yelp
have all recently been mired in similar privacy issues regarding their apps
collection and storage of users' contacts, according to reports.
Apple did not respond to requests
for comment.
My Comments: This article interested me because I, along
with many others, am an Iphone user and I agree that apps shouldn’t be allowed
to take people’s private information and use it for marketing. I believe
marketing needs to be ethical and taking advantage of people’s trust is not fair.
If apps are saving people’s private information to use without asking them,
this could be a major issue of trust in the future between people and
technology.
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