House Dems want answers from Apple on Path privacy breach

Two prominent House Democrats wrote to Apple CEO Tim Cook on Wednesday asking him for details after reports the Path social networking app was downloading users' address books without their consent.

House Energy and Commerce ranking member Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Manufacturing subcommittee Chairman G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) wrote to Cook Wednesday, citing developer Arun Thampi for first blogging the issue. Path CEO Dave Morin has since apologized and promised to delete all the data.

"This incident raises questions about whether Apple’s iOS app developer policies and practices may fall short when it comes to protecting the information of iPhone users and their contacts," wrote the lawmakers.

The lawmakers note other claims that many app developers for Apple's iOS platform download users' entire address books without their permission, and send the data to remote servers for future reference.

"The fact that the previous version of Path was able to gain approval for distribution through the Apple iTunes Store despite taking the contents of users’ address books without their permission suggests that there could be some truth to these claims," the letter states.

The lawmakers ask Apple to describes the guidelines in place for apps regarding the privacy and security of data, as well as how many apps transmit information from the address book with or without asking for consent. They request answers no later than Feb. 29.

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