Tech
companies are increasingly coming under pressure from federal bodies due to
privacy concerns raised by consumer advocacy groups. A week ago, The New York
Times published news reports stating that the location sharing app on
smartphones and tablet-PCs were surreptitiously stealing personal content from
users and using it for generating targeted advertising. Well, the latter is
better than broad based advertising, right? Apple also came under fire for the
same reason as it was discovered that certain apps managed to access
photographs and text messages on their iPhone’s and iPad’s.
Apple’s
representatives thus have decided to meet Sen. Charles Schumer and discuss the
steps the company is taking to stop data theft from users. Apple, unlike the
Android, has a lengthy testing period for all the apps it puts on display at
the App Store. During this period, the app is checked thoroughly and only after
all checks are completed and all avenues exhausted is the app is introduced to
the consumer. Despite these stringent measures, how an unsafe app found its way
into the App Store is yet to be determined.
Senator Asks
FTC to investigate Google and Apple
The
Senator of New York, Charles Schumer, is requesting that the Federal Trade
Commission investigate both Google and Apple. Schumer claims that the companies
are giving app developers permission to develop applications that can gain access to smartphone users private photos and
videos. These apps are supposedly available in both the Apple and Android App
stores.
In
a press release, Senator Schumer stated the following, “When someone takes a
private photo, on a private cell phone, it should remain just that: private.
Smartphone developers have an obligation to protect the private content of
their users and not allow them to be veritable treasure troves of private,
personal information that can then be uploaded and distributed without the
consumer’s consent.”
Senator
Schumer went on to say; “According to reports by independent technologists,
two separate loopholes, one in the Apple operating system and one in the
Android operating system, allow apps to gather users’ photos. In the case of
Apple, If a user allows the application to use
location data, which is used for GPSbased applications, they also allow access
to the user’s photo and video files that can be uploaded to outside servers. In
the case of Android-based applications, the user only needs to allow the
application to use Internet services as part of the app for third parties to
gain access to photo albums.”
Google
and Apple have both agreed to meet with the senator to discuss these matters
further.
This
isn’t the first time that Apple has been in hot waters over privacy policy
issues. The company faced similar scrutiny last year when the application
“Path” was found to be uploading users’ entire address books and private
contact information to its servers. Apple also crawled from a PR nightmare,
which stemmed from claims that the company was tracking users’ locations and
breaching their privacy. The company claims that this newest issue is nothing
more than a bug In the system, and will be patched up
in an upcoming iOS software update.
The iPad has become indispensable
for small business owners
According
to a national survey conducted by The Business Journals, 34 percent of small
and medium sized businesses say that the iPad is crucial for their day-to-day
business activities. The survey also reveals that iPad usage, which was limited
to just 9 percent in 2010, has shot up to 34 percent in 2011. This makes the
iPad the fastest adopted technology in the market by small and medium sized
businesses. Even computerization and the Internet did not grow at that pace.
The
iPad was first introduced into the market in 2010 when the general economic
mood was at an all-time low and has recovered very little since then.
Businesses were struggling to stay afloat and needed ways to enhance their
efficiency. The iPad enabled these business owners to achieve just that. Around
1,400 businesses were surveyed for this study. The report also indicates that
with the introduction of cloud computing, the need for the iPad is going to
increase even more.
