iPhone Loophole Gives App Developers Access To Your Photos back

posted on Mon, 05 Mar at 15:11

In Apple‘s third major privacy flaw revelation this month, app developers have told The New York Timesthat they can easily access private photos on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.


App developers told the publication that after you download an app, it can easily copy your entire photo library without telling you. Apple doesn’t block app developers from copying photos, but the company screens all the apps that appear in its App Store. Apple reps could not be reached for comment on the report.

Developers gain access to your photo library when an app asks to use your location data with a pop-up messages asking for “access to location information in photos and videos,” according to the report. The photos and videos are saved along with information about where they were taken. It’s not entirely clear what app developers could do with such data.

Mr. David Jacobs, a fellow at the Electronic Privacy Information Center said;

“We’ve seen celebrities and famous people have pictures leaked and disclosed in the past. There’s every reason to think that if you make that easier to do, you’ll see much more of it,” . Not just celebrities are at risk, he added. “A lot of sites are trying to obtain images from everyday people and politicians to post online.”

“Apple has a tremendous responsibility as the gatekeeper to the App Store and the apps people put on their phone to police the apps,“

“Apple and app makers should be making sure people understand what they are consenting to. It is pretty obvious that they aren’t doing a good enough job of that.”

The report comes after reports surfaced that app developers had access to address book information without notifying users. The reports prompted Apple to announce that from now on, app developers will need explicit permission from users to access such data. Around the same time, a Wall Street Journal investigation showed that Google had been overriding privacy settings in the iPhone’s Safari browser to track users’ data. Google is no longer tracking such information.



Source: Omgghana.