iOS Apps That Access Your Location Info Also Have Access to Your Photos

In order to give an iOS application access to your location information, you are also granting them access to your photos, notes the New York Times.

Developers of applications for Apple's mobile devices, and Apple itself, came under scrutiny this month after reports that some apps were taking people's address book information without their knowledge. As it turns out, address books are not the only things up for grabs. Photos are also vulnerable. After a user allows an application on an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch to have access to location information, the app can copy the user's entire photo library, without any further notification or warning, according to app developers.

"Conceivably, an app with access to location data could put together a history of where the user has been based on photo location," said David E. Chen, co-founder of Curio, a company that develops iOS apps. "The location history, as well as your photos and videos, could be uploaded to a server. Once the data is off of the iOS device, Apple has virtually no ability to monitor or limit its use."


In Apple's defense, when prompted to allow access to location data you are clearly told the app will be able to access your photos and videos. Furthermore, if you trust an app with your location, its likely that you would trust it with your photos as well. That being said, for privacy reasons it would be better for these permissions to be separate; although, it will be annoying to have to have so many popups at launch of an application. Perhaps a permissions popup with a list of requested permissions and the ability to selectively choose which to allow is needed.

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