Apple Privacy Concerns Go To Court

An anonymous reader writes "From the article: 'Apple is being sued for allegedly letting mobile apps on the iPhone and iPad send personal information to ad networks without the consent of users.' Some of the apps listed are on the Android Market as well, but there is no mention of a similar problem for Google. One wonders if Apple could be persuaded to strip access to the unique phone identifiers from apps." A followup article with an industry lawyer suggests that this lawsuit could be the first of many as users push back against privacy intrusions by app developers and ad networks.

Comments

android asks the user for permissions

[yincrash]

that is why there is no issue with google.

Re:android asks the user for permissions

[peragrin]

then why do so many android apps require internet access, and other information, even though they are just a simple game?, note pad, etc.

people are use to clicking on yes to continue because that's what they have to do to get it to work. 90% of the population also clicks through EULA's without reading the first sentence. I know I do. I can't be bothered to read it, it would take far longer to read and understand than the contents of the program are worth.

Re:android asks the user for permissions

[dreamchaser]

If you agree to something without reading it then it's your own damn fault if you don't like the outcome.

Re:android asks the user for permissions

[davester666]

Um, you do know Blackberry's work, right?

Unless the company you work for coughed up a lung to run a RIM server internally, all your personal data gets routed through RIM's "cloud" in Canada [which the US gov't likes, because they don't need any pesky warrants to access the data because Canadian's are so accommodating].

Re:UDIDs are here to stay

[jolyonr]

There's no reason why iOS have to send the genuine UDIDs to the app developer. If the app requests a UDID for the device, iOS should generate a key that is unique for that device AND THAT DEVELOPER.

So a developer can see if a user has (for example) used the previous 'free' version of their paid app, but these keys would be meaningless to other developers.

It may still be possible for developers to find out the UDID through unauthorized means, but then the developer would clearly be breaking Apple rules and is at risk of being kicked out of the appstore.

Jolyon