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Wednesday, February 08, 2012, 06:48 pm
Path apologizes, offers opt-out for address book uploading
Social networking app Path issued an apology through its blog on Wednesday for the implementation of a back-end "feature" that uploaded a user's iPhone contacts list to the company's servers, and released an update to remedy the problem with new opt-in/opt-out settings.On Tuesday, Developer Arun Thampi discovered that the Path app was uploading user contacts in an unseen background task, which triggered a subsequent deluge of criticism from those who viewed the action as a privacy violation.
Path claims that the data upload was meant to streamline the app's "Add Friends" feature, not to horde sensitive information:
We are sorry.
We made a mistake. Over the last couple of days users brought to light an issue concerning how we handle your personal information on Path, specifically the transmission and storage of your phone contacts.
As our mission is to build the world’s first personal network, a trusted place for you to journal and share life with close friends and family, we take the storage and transmission of your personal information very very seriously.
Through the feedback we’ve received from all of you, we now understand that the way we had designed our ‘Add Friends’ feature was wrong. We are deeply sorry if you were uncomfortable with how our application used your phone contacts.
The letter goes on to explain that the information gathered is used to improve the quality of friend suggestions and to notify users when a contact joins Path. The data transfers are also encrypted and stored on "servers using industry-standard firewall technology."
In response to the public outcry, Path has erased all user-uploaded contact information in concert with the release of an updated version of the software that prompts users to select whether they want to opt in to sharing contacts.
Path 2.0.6 is currently available in the App Store.
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Previous Comments View All
Quote:
Originally Posted by nagromme 
That would be the perfect gesture if they had ACCIDENTALLY collected the data and never realized it was happening.
But this mistake was not some accident or technical glitch, and just because they chose the right PR move after they got busted, that doesnt make them a company I can trust.
That would be the perfect gesture if they had ACCIDENTALLY collected the data and never realized it was happening.
But this mistake was not some accident or technical glitch, and just because they chose the right PR move after they got busted, that doesnt make them a company I can trust.
Doesnt apple screen apps?
Apple needs to add more bricks to that wall garden. Maybe a dome?
If they really want us to trust them, shouldn't they make this an opt-IN service, rather than opt-out? I shouldn't have to hunt for a setting inside the app to turn something like this off, it should explicitly ask me to turn it on.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hittrj01
If they really want us to trust them, shouldn't they make this an opt-IN service, rather than opt-out? I shouldn't have to hunt for a setting inside the app to turn something like this off, it should explicitly ask me to turn it on.
If they really want us to trust them, shouldn't they make this an opt-IN service, rather than opt-out? I shouldn't have to hunt for a setting inside the app to turn something like this off, it should explicitly ask me to turn it on.
It was probably in their EULA
Quote:
Originally Posted by Just_Me
It was probably in their EULA
It was probably in their EULA
Doesn't matter. Apple doesn't allow it at all.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil
Doesn't matter. Apple doesn't allow it at all.
Doesn't matter. Apple doesn't allow it at all.
Well Apple screwed up. They should have denied the app.
More bricks on the walled garden
Nearly sounds like a clever marketing trick this whole thing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Just_Me
Well Apple screwed up. They should have denied the app.
More bricks on the walled garden
Well Apple screwed up. They should have denied the app.
More bricks on the walled garden
Exactly. This exposes a enormous problem with Apple's procedures if an application can get approved while doing something like this.
From what little I have seen on this incident, Apple seems to be getting a pass in the coverage and I don't understand why. Has any person/site covering this asked Apple about what went wrong and what are they planning to do to prevent something like this in the future?
I heard an iOS developer talking about how easy it is to get bad behavior around Apple's approval process. He said that all he has to do is have the app check for a date past the time Apple would have approved the app. Once that date arises, the app would then go out to his web site and get instructions that would change its behavior. The developer indicated he is already using this technique to collect data that Apple wouldn't normally allow.
Walled garden indeed.
-kpluck
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ireland
Nearly sounds like a clever marketing trick this whole thing.
Nearly sounds like a clever marketing trick this whole thing.
next cleaver idea. Steal peoples apple I'd and use it to buy your app
Quote:
Originally Posted by Just_Me
next cleaver idea. Steal peoples apple I'd and use it to buy your app
next cleaver idea. Steal peoples apple I'd and use it to buy your app
Pwned by your spellchecker.
Damn.
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That would be the perfect gesture if they had ACCIDENTALLY collected the data and never realized it was happening.
But this "mistake" was not some accident or technical glitch, and just because they chose the right PR move after they got busted, that doesn't make them a company I can trust.