Path uploads your entire iPhone address book to its servers

Post by dkrich » Thu, Feb 09, 2012, 3:48 AM UTC

dkrich wrote: post #211

pclark wrote: post #103

I find it mind blowing that (in the comments of the blog post) someone asked the Path CEO: > Why wasn't this [sending all the contacts to your servers without users knowing] an opt-in situation to begin with? Isn't that against Apple's own T&Cs? and the Path CEO replied: > This is currently the industry best practice and the App Store guidelines do not specifically discuss contact information. However, as mentioned,…

But Apple did do this to their users. They are just as culpable as Path, if not more so. If you are going to provide a platform for app distribution, it is your, and only your responsibility to ensure that private information is not abused if you create the illusion that user information is safe.

Post by charlieok » Wed, Feb 15, 2012, 7:07 PM UTC

po wrote: post #220

charlieok wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the traction this story is getting, it sure looks like address book information is considered sensitive by a lot of people. Possibly on par with location data.

It's sensitive depending on what you're going to do with it. If you're a native app and you want to access it so that you can show me my address book in some unique way, then I don't want to be bothered giving permission. If you're a native app that's just a front end to some social network and you're going to shuttle it off to some big database in the sky, then maybe not. The problem is that this isn't easily enforc…