Apple: Apps Accessing Address Book Data Will Require Explicit User Approval

Posted by iPhoneHacks on Feb 15, 2012 | Comments (7)

Apple has finally responded to the address book privacy issue that was raised when a Singapore based developer discovered that Path – the personal life-sharing service with more than 2 million users uploads the address book to their servers.

AllThingsD reports that Apple has informed them that apps that use address book data will have to explicit take permission from users.

“Apps that collect or transmit a user’s contact data without their prior permission are in violation of our guidelines,” Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr told AllThingsD. “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.”  

This means that Apple will incorporate the change in iOS 5.1. Apple has seeded three beta versions of iOS 5.1 to developers of iOS Developer program so far and widely expected to release it along with the launch of iPad 3, which is expected to be unveiled on March 7th.

But based on the negative publicity and questions that the issue has raised, it is also possible that Apple could release a quick fix as a minor iOS update (iOS 5.0.2).

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  • ScottN

    Good.

  • JasonB

    Don’t need to wait for Apple to address this issue!
    This fix has already been addressed by Ryan Petrich’s FREE tweak!
    All you need to do is download ContactPrivacy from Cydia

    I’ve installed it and its working flawlessly!

    ContactPrivacy is available for free. To install it, you need to add Ryan Petrich’s repo to Cydia using the following URL: http://rpetri.ch/repo

    source: http://www.iphonehacks.com/2012/02/contactprivacy-jailbreak-tweak.html

  • Kenny

    Thats good about Apple IOS, whenever any issues the fixes will be upcoming sooner than Android.

    • Nosferatu

      most ignorant comment and ill-informed

      • Doobs

        Care to elaborate on that?
        My wife’s phone is a Nexus S, I have read the Android User Manual and still find it hard to use compared to IOS. There are so many things that seem to be too difficult to do, I just say to the wife “Here, have the stupid thing!” and the iPhone or iPad wins every time for me.

        • Melvarius

          yup setting up an iPhone is easy. Setting up an android phone is “educational”, but you soon find your way around. I’m due for an upgrade soon and not sure wether to go brain dead or Android. I don’t like Apples control freak nature so Android is looking more promising.

  • http://www.motorbeam.com/ fas

    and then the congressman object on the other hand.