Zheng Jun reporting from Silicon Valley, USA - Sina Technology News, February 16th: Due to insufficient protection of iPhone user privacy, Apple is facing an inquiry from the U.S. Congress. Two U.S. congressmen have already sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, demanding an explanation by the end of the month regarding numerous social applications uploading user contact lists without consent.
Apple spokesperson Tom Neumayr stated: "Collecting or transmitting contact data without prior user consent violates Apple's policies. As we previously addressed location data issues, we are working to improve this matter. In the future, any application wishing to access user contact data must obtain explicit user consent."
Previously, popular iPhone app developers such as Twitter were found to be privately copying and uploading iPhone user contact lists to their own servers without promptly informing users. If users enable the "Scan contacts to find Twitter friends" feature in Twitter's iPhone app, Twitter will copy and upload the user's contact list, retaining it for 18 months.
U.S. Representatives Henry Waxman of North Carolina and G.K. Butterfield have already written to Cook, stating that "collecting contact information without user consent has become a common practice among third-party app developers on the iOS platform." They demand that Apple investigate its failure to protect user privacy and provide an explanation by the end of the month.
The two representatives require Cook to clarify and explain various issues, including: elaborating on all relevant iOS app policies related to protecting user privacy; how Apple determines whether an app complies with these standards; how many iOS apps in the U.S. iTunes store transmit user contact data, and how many obtained prior user consent?
App developer Dustin Curtis stated: "I investigated 15 popular iOS app developers, and 13 admitted they saved user contact data. One company's database even contained Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's phone number, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison's home phone, and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates' phone number."
Last week, the popular social app Path was discovered to have privately copied and uploaded user contact lists to its company server. Path founder Dave Morin was subsequently forced to publicly apologize and release a new version of the app, allowing users to choose whether to share their contact lists.
Twitter previously admitted to the media that the "Find Friends" feature in its iPhone app uploads the entire user contact list to the company's server and retains it for 18 months. A Twitter spokesperson said the company will release a new version of the app, using clearer language to allow users to make choices. She also acknowledged that the Android version similarly uploads contact lists.
Last year, Apple was exposed for recording tracking data of user locations in the iPhone's built-in database. The U.S. Congress also investigated Apple. Under pressure from the media and Congress, Apple eventually updated the iPhone software, encrypting or removing such data.
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