Apple CEO Tim Cook took the flamethrower to Facebook over a user data controversy earlier this year. When asked what he would do if Apple were in Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s shoes, Cook responded, “I wouldn’t be in that situation.” The Washington Post described it as Cook “implicitly savaging” Facebook.
But a new report from Bloomberg reveals that Apple does, in fact, allow developers to take information from users’ iPhone contacts. Or rather, they did, until sometime last week when the tech giant quietly closed a loophole in its App Store rules to prevent developers from storing and sharing data without users’ consent.
The move cracks down on a practice that’s been employed for years. Developers ask users for access to their phone contacts, then use it for marketing and sometimes share or sell the information — without permission from the other people listed on those digital address books. On both Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android, the world’s largest smartphone operating systems, the tactic is sometimes used to juice growth and make money.
This is essentially the same practice that got Facebook in hot water a few months back. Yet for some reason, Apple’s privacy infringement isn’t garnering the headlines that Facebook has received. And that’s in spite of the fact that Cook repeatedly rode a high horse over the privacy issue. – READ MORE
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