Congress requests privacy briefing in letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook
In a letter to Tim Cook on Wednesday, members of a U.S. Congress subcommittee requested that Apple send a representative to Washington to brief government officials on what the company is doing to protect the personal information stored on iOS devices.
The House Committee on Energy and Commerce claims that Cook's initial response to a letter sent in February regarding iOS privacy practices was insufficient, and is asking that Apple give more detailed information as to what the company is doing to protect its customers, reports VentureBeat.
Representative Henry A. Waxman, ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and ranking member of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade, Rep. G.K. Butterfield, write that Apple's March 2nd response did "not answer a number of the questions we raised about the company’s efforts to protect the privacy and security of its mobile device users."
The officials go on to voice concern over certain iOS apps having access to photos as well as unnamed "tools" provided by Apple that can lead to unwanted "online tracking." It is unclear whether the statement is in regard to a recent call for an FTC investigation over a loophole that allows an app to upload photos if it authorized to access location data. Because the photos were geo-tagged, it is conceivable that a user's could be tracked as long as they kept taking pictures with location data turned on.
Click for PDF.
The security of iOS was first questioned when it was discovered that social networking app "Path" was uploading information from users' address books to its servers without first asking permission. The so-called "feature" was meant to allow for a more streamlined experience when adding friends, and in doing so illustrated a vulnerability that could be exploited by malicious apps to retrieve a user's personal information.
Shortly after the discovery, Path issued an apology and changed the way it handled sensitive information. Apple followed suit and updated iOS, requiring that apps first ask for user permission before accessing a device's address book.
[ View article on AppleInsider ]
Comments
Nobody said being "#1" was easy.
I'm so glad our Congress was finally able to solve our gargantuan deficit, our crumbling infrastructure, our failing schools, the money-sucking Post Office, etc. etc. etc., and now has time to focus on what *really* matters, like privacy issues on mobile phones.
I don't think it's fair to expect that everything else to be dropped to focus on a single issue, no matter how important. Surely a country or business couldn't function if everyone was doing the same task and no other task.
I don't think it's fair to expect that everything else to be dropped to focus on a single issue, no matter how important. Surely a country or business couldn't function if everyone was doing the same task and no other task.
huh?! what do you mean?
The guy was pointing out other more important issues that are far more deserving their attention far more than this is.
I don't think it's fair to expect that everything else to be dropped to focus on a single issue, no matter how important. Surely a country or business couldn't function if everyone was doing the same task and no other task.
I don't know about you, but I didn't see the poster list "one issue" or a "single task". Surely, you can understand his point about maybe having other MULTIPLE priorities right now in the United States and the world that might take a little more precedence. Even the Subcommittee on Energy and Commerce has some bigger fish to fry: maybe gas prices, etc.?
it's amazing that the focus is on Apple's mobile devices when throughout the history of computing if an app has access to the user space it also has access to user's photos, contacts, browser history, etc. Even now some app you install on my Mac or Win PC could be collecting data without you knowing. Hopefully that Mac App Store sandboxing prevents this but that remains to be seen what areas it can read.
I agree. It's kind of weird.
huh?! what do you mean?
The guy was pointing out other more important issues that are far more deserving their attention far more than this is.
Then his sarcastic remark hides that fact by the implication that if they are spending any time on this issue that they can't possibly be working on other issues.
I don't know about you, but I didn't see the poster list "one issue" or a "single task". Surely, you can understand his point about maybe having other MULTIPLE priorities right now in the United States and the world that might take a little more precedence. Even the Subcommittee on Energy and Commerce has some bigger fish to fry: maybe gas prices, etc.?
His implication is clear. If Congress is dealing with the this then they can't be dealing with anything else which isn't remotely true. It's the exact same crap where people say Apple should spend more efforts innovating instead of litigating as if the lawyers are splitting their time between R&D at Apple.
Apple opening the gates to make the iPhone a development platform for 3rd parties has allowed these malicious-type apps to slip in and become available on the app store, which poses a risk for people having their content hacked from their device.
Again, if it was a more closed system, we probably wouldn't be having this issues.
Mirroring above, let's hope the sandboxing can ameliorate some of this.
Then his sarcastic remark hides that fact by the implication that if they are spending any time on this issue that they can't possibly be working on other issues.
His implication is clear. If Congress is dealing with the this then they can't be dealing with anything else which isn't remotely true. It's the exact same crap where people say Apple should spend more efforts innovating instead of litigating as if the lawyers are splitting their time between R&D at Apple.
Listen I'm all for multi-tasking but this is ridiculous. They don't even meet very often and when they do they are BS-ing around on this stuff instead of working on much bigger problems. Maybe if they focused on our education infrastructure and health care... they wouldn't have a 9% approval rating.
Listen I'm all for multi-tasking but this is ridiculous. They don't even meet very often and when they do they are BS-ing around on this stuff instead of working on much bigger problems. Maybe if they focused on our education infrastructure and health care... they wouldn't have a 9% approval rating.
No argument from me that Congress can't do a much, much better job but that doesn't prevent the OP's comment from being a dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter or a non sequitur argument. Because of the sarcastic twist I can't tell which one applies more.
Then again it is that stooge Henry Waxman.
with great power comes great responsibility
No wiser words have ever been uttered about the 'web'.
So, it looks like while Jony's having the grilled at Obama's dinner, the Cook will be getting grilled.
In a letter to Tim Cook on Wednesday, members of a U.S. Congress subcommittee requested that Apple send a representative to Washington to brief government officials on what the company is doing to protect the personal information stored on iOS devices.
The House Committee on Energy and Commerce claims that Cook's initial response to a letter sent in February regarding iOS privacy practices was insufficient, and is asking that Apple give more detailed information as to what the company is doing to protect its customers, reports VentureBeat.
Representative Henry A. Waxman, ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and ranking member of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade, Rep. G.K. Butterfield, write that Apple's March 2nd response did "not answer a number of the questions we raised about the company?s efforts to protect the privacy and security of its mobile device users."
The officials go on to voice concern over certain iOS apps having access to photos as well as unnamed "tools" provided by Apple that can lead to unwanted "online tracking." It is unclear whether the statement is in regard to a recent call for an FTC investigation over a loophole that allows an app to upload photos if it authorized to access location data. Because the photos were geo-tagged, it is conceivable that a user's could be tracked as long as they kept taking pictures with location data turned on.
Click for PDF.
The security of iOS was first questioned when it was discovered that social networking app "Path" was uploading information from users' address books to its servers without first asking permission. The so-called "feature" was meant to allow for a more streamlined experience when adding friends, and in doing so illustrated a vulnerability that could be exploited by malicious apps to retrieve a user's personal information.
Shortly after the discovery, Path issued an apology and changed the way it handled sensitive information. Apple followed suit and updated iOS, requiring that apps first ask for user permission before accessing a device's address book.
[ View article on AppleInsider ]
Seriously, spend your time fixing our out of control deficit that is going to destroy us. Vs. spending time in Apple's pants. We are going to soon be $20 trillion in debt
We are going to soon be $20 trillion in debt
But at least, with the United States privacy laws, nobody in America will know about it.
A perfect, political solution.
They don't even meet very often?
I don't really get that, either. If I ever ran for Congress, I'd be working every single day. Screw vacation days. We can take a vacation when we have a surplus, not a deficit.
I love that Congress thinks it can tell Apple what to do. Obviously I don't mean that in the legal sense, I mean it in the sense that the government has a $16 trillion debt and Apple has $100 billion in the bank. Pretty sure we know who to follow here.
We need a Steve Jobs character for president. Stop trying to get the ship facing the right direction.
I cringe everytime I see my location after a Google web search on my PC. And it CAN NOT be turned off. I have reduced my usage of Google substantially because of it.
Maybe if they focused on our education infrastructure and health care... they wouldn't have a 9% approval rating.
Maybe if Apple focused a little more on protecting users, and a little less on making as much profit as possible, they wouldn't be in this sort of trouble.
/s