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Technology News – Apple to outlaw Apps that grapple Personal Data
This response was so instant owing to the letter from Government asking explanation from Apple over its policies. Apple CEO Tim Cook was approached by House Energy & Commerce Committee Chair Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Commerce Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee Chair G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) and confronted,”whether Apple iOS app developer policies and practices may fall short when it comes to protecting the information of iPhone users and their contacts.” The whole scenario took shape the previous week when a well known social network app Path was found culpable of uploading its users’ address books without prior notification or permission. Being caught for the privacy violations; the Path CEO Dave Morin apologized the other day though not before a media backlash. Later it was traced that there existed few more apps much larger than Path who allegedly stores users’ data without prior knowledge or notification. To name a few, Yelp, FourSquare, and Instagram are some of the suspected apps. To a statement made to All Things D, Apple said, “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 statement synopsis is that any app wishing to stay in the Apple store needs to duly notify the user before leading to upload Address Book data. The guidelines of Apple had been breached time and again since years. But no sooner did Apple get aware of the widened loopholes of its policies it took instant measures to get the gap tailored. A similar scenario was evident in case of iAuthor’s draconian EULA contract regarding the book-creating app: the agreement stated that any content developed using its free software would automatically get possessed by Apple. But the company was compelled to amend the controversial requirements owing to the sudden public outcry. It would be interesting to see whether the draining out of data gets restricted through this warning wedged by Apple for its Apps. |
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Apple has axed the Apps that allegedly squeeze out the Personal Data of the user. As per the latest technology news Apple has declared that app developers should take it as a mandate to inform users before uploading and even if they store your contacts and personal data on their servers. The address book issue was responded to by Apple as quickly as it arose when app makers mad efforts to drain out personal information from your smartphone without asking for permission.