16 February 2012 | Author: R Wood Media Intern
Twitter users who have installed the microblogging app on their smartphones are sharing more than 140 characters, as news emerges user address books are unknowingly being copied and stored by popular social networks.
Apple and Android users who download social networks like Twitter, Foursquare and Instagram have been found to gather and store personal information from user address books.
The controversy began earlier this week when an app developer from Singapore noticed his iPhone contacts had been copied without consent by Path - the photo sharing and messaging social network. Path quickly issued an apology, but not before users began scrutinising other apps that may be doing the same thing.
While most social networks maintain address books are only used to identify friends for the user, critics are quick to point out this practice isn't in compliance with Apple's iTunes store guidelines, which explicitly states "Apps that read or write data outside its designated container area will be rejected."
Currently, Twitter tells users it may "customize" their accounts with information from their address books - but fails to mention it stores full iPhone contact lists for up to 18 months.
"We want to be clear and transparent in our communications with users. Along those lines, in our next app updates, which are coming soon, we are updating the language associated with Find Friends - to be more explicit," Twitter spokeswoman Carolyn Penner told the LA Times.
"In place of 'Scan your contacts,' we will use 'Upload your contacts' and 'Import your contacts' (in Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android, respectively)."
Twitter app delves into smartphone contact list
Twitter users who have installed the microblogging app on their smartphones are sharing more than 140 characters, as news emerges user address books are unknowingly being copied and stored by popular social networks. Apple and Android users who download social networks like Twitter, Foursquare and Instagram have been found to gather and store personal information from user address books.
The controversy began earlier this week when an app developer from Singapore noticed his iPhone contacts had been copied without consent by Path - the photo sharing and messaging social network. Path quickly issued an apology, but not before users began scrutinising other apps that may be doing the same thing.
While most social networks maintain address books are only used to identify friends for the user, critics are quick to point out this practice isn't in compliance with Apple's iTunes store guidelines, which explicitly states "Apps that read or write data outside its designated container area will be rejected."
Currently, Twitter tells users it may "customize" their accounts with information from their address books - but fails to mention it stores full iPhone contact lists for up to 18 months.
"We want to be clear and transparent in our communications with users. Along those lines, in our next app updates, which are coming soon, we are updating the language associated with Find Friends - to be more explicit," Twitter spokeswoman Carolyn Penner told the LA Times.
"In place of 'Scan your contacts,' we will use 'Upload your contacts' and 'Import your contacts' (in Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android, respectively)."
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