Government decision could impact literally thousands of apps

Feb 17, 2012 07:38 GMT  ·  By

Apple has released a statement on Contact Data Privacy confirming that the company’s App Store guidelines for developers are to require apps to seek "explicit approval" from the user via additional prompts when accessing the person’s private data.

The move is the result of a shocking discovery made by a Singaporean developer earlier this month. As part of a hackathon, iOS coder Arun Thampi found that a social networking app called Path had uploaded his iPhone’s contacts, complete with names and associated phone numbers, to the cloud.

The discovery spurred investigations into similar apps and, sure enough, even big titles like Twitter and Facebook were found guilty as charged.

The problem, however, was Apple’s iOS - not the apps themselves. While these companies had uploaded their users’ data without their express consent, they had done so to deliver benefits based on their information - such as suggestions to make friends among people with similar interests.

The privacy issue, however, remained. U.S. legislators pressured Apple to change the guidelines by which developers code and submit their apps to the App Store.

Apple CEO, Tim Cook, received a letter this week from representatives Henry Waxman of California and G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina, which asked the company to amend its developer guidelines to introduce new measures to screen apps.

The company pledged to do so in a statement provided to the press this week (via SlashGear):

“Apps that collect or transmit a user’s contact data without their prior permission are in violation of our guidelines. 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.”

The move could impact thousands of applications in the App Store. While that doesn’t mean their publishers will be required to pull the binaries, they will have to release new versions of their apps to comply with the new rules.

Apple, on its end, will release a new iOS version that also reflects the changes, according to a separate statement issued by the Cupertino giant this week.