A new report from Bloomberg’s BusinessWeek claims that Apple CEO Tim Cook “hauled” Dave Morin (co-founder of the company that developed the Path app) into Apple’s Cupertino headquarters to grill him and other executives after hearing about the privacy violation.
This all took place after a developer discovered the behind-the-scenes upload feature in February. Although Path wasn’t the only app uploading users’ address books, its high-profile re-launch left the app in an unfortunate spotlight causing controversy. The whole issue ended up striking a nerve with users and the media which led to strong criticism of the app as a whole. The company was quick to apologize and remove the feature from its software to appease everyone complaining.
Apple was quick to distance itself from the situation by stating that apps that collect or transmit personal information without obtaining permission are in violation of its guidelines. The Cupertino California company promised to require explicit user approval before apps access contact data in future releases.
The issue has attracted the attention of lawmakers recently as two U.S. congressmen sent a letter to Cook over the address book issue. Furthermore, Senator Charles Schumer called for an FTC investigation of Apple and Google over both the address book controversy and a potential loophole with geo-tagged photos. Both companies have responded by showing interest in meeting with the senator to discuss his concerns.
Although Path was the one in the spotlight, many apps were guilty of having the same feature as pointed out by several iOS developers. We’ll have to wait and see what results the legal actions taken against the matter yield.
Source: BusinessWeek
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