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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Dustin Curtis points out that in the latest developer seed of OS X Mountain Lion, Apple now requires OS X Apps to get explicit permission to access your address book information.

contacts_request.jpg



The move mirrors recent changes made to iOS which will also ask the user for permission for an App to access their contact data. The change in policy came after it was revealed that some iOS apps were quietly collecting and transmitting customer address book data without their permission.

At the time, Apple issued this statement:
"Apps that collect or transmit a user's contact data without their prior permission are in violation of our guidelines," Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr told AllThingsD. "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 policy now appears to extend to OS X Mountain Lion as well as iOS. Users can later manage these permissions in a new "Privacy" tab in System Preferences.

Article Link: OS X Mountain Lion Apps Now Ask Permission to Access Contacts
 

OrangeSVTguy

macrumors 601
Sep 16, 2007
4,127
68
Northeastern Ohio
I'd like to know what those apps did with all that info and if those apps deleted that private information? Possibly a government conspiracy secretly collecting data and all your contacts to create a profile and to track you? :p
 

actionjunky

macrumors newbie
Aug 15, 2011
24
0
This is Not a Fix

Apps that access my contacts are fine with me as long as no data is EVER transmitted. This could be useful for mapping, CRM sales integration, and other apps that we haven't thought of yet.

Based on this fix, if I give an app permission, am I also giving permission to transmit personal information? I would much rather be informed before any personal data is sent.
 

tkermit

macrumors 68040
Feb 20, 2004
3,581
2,833
that was my exact first thought
That's a pretty ugly red symbol. :eek:

Maybe it's just a rough first attempt at the dialogue, and their UX team (or whatever) hasn't looked it over...
I would have expected a dialogue like this:

warning.png


Or maybe their new version makes more sense in this case...who knows...it certainly looks simpler. I'd have to think it over :p
 
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Inakto

macrumors regular
Oct 29, 2007
135
0
toronto
I would like to additionally be notified if the app is trying to send my contacts to someone in nigeria ... I don't mind apps using contacts internally. It's not like the computer can judge your choice of company
 

ggg05a

macrumors regular
Jan 11, 2009
128
0
As much as I'd love to hate on Apple for this, I'll direct my hatred to all the idiots who have made Apple do this

"Sure I'll download freepornandfreemoneyandfreebmw.dmg its gotta be legit right?"

Make Macs more expensive . . . problem solved.
 

MarkMS

macrumors 6502a
Aug 30, 2006
992
0
Part of the reason I like OSX is that it's not constantly asking me for permission to do things, something which windows does constantly.

It's not constantly asking you for AddressBook.app permission. It's a one time thing like location services and notifications on iOS. Here's hoping we see this on iOS soon.


As much as I'd love to hate on Apple for this, I'll direct my hatred to all the idiots who have made Apple do this

"Sure I'll download freepornandfreemoneyandfreebmw.dmg its gotta be legit right?"

Make Macs more expensive . . . problem solved.

I believe this is more of a developer issue than computer "idiots" downloading weird apps. Apple is trying to combat the issue of developers accessing contact info easily in OS X and iOS to mine for data. The iOS Path app made headlines about this issue.
 
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zachlegomaniac

macrumors 6502a
Sep 20, 2008
806
370
I don't mean to be a duck, but I would expect Adium would access my contacts. I assume some more in depth privacy issues are at hand here though, right?

Things are getting too complicated for my daily life as a simpleton gardener to even be privy to how my own privacy can be compromised and exploited. That's scary, huh? Yerp.
 

brdeveloper

macrumors 68030
Apr 21, 2010
2,626
313
Brasil
Part of the reason I like OSX is that it's not constantly asking me for permission to do things, something which windows does constantly.

Currently I have Vista installed on my Macmini 2010. It's a very decent OS that support drivers for some peripherals that OSX 10.6 does not. Nikon Coolscan V, AverTV adapter, Nokia Suite.

Actually I like these security popups. When the system can't resolve security issues, I'm glad that it asks me before doing anything.
 
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