iOS Apps and the Address Book ⇥

Great reporting and research by Dieter Bohn:

The proper technical solution is for iOS to limit access to the contacts database for all apps, so that an app must ask the user for explicit permission to access it. Apple already does this for location information. Yes, this solution is likely to break functionality for a wide swath of apps and it also brings up the earlier-mentioned problem of “alert fatigue,” but neither of those issues should be considered deal-breakers when weighed against the potential privacy issues of unfettered access to contact information. As things stand today, any one of the over half a million iOS apps currently in the market can access your address book without your knowledge or permission