Why Apple's iOS 6 Privacy Protection Will Backfire

19.06.2012
People don't like it when apps surreptitiously steal personal information. Apparently Apple's primary concern is the "surreptitious" part, though, rather than preventing personal data from being leaked or collected. New dialog boxes in iOS 6 may protect Apple, but will do little to help users safeguard their privacy.

Earlier this year the proverbial "stuff" hit the fan when it was discovered that Path--a popular social networking app--was from the address books of the iOS devices it was installed on. That incident was followed by other , and congressional inquiries demanding stricter protection for users.

Apple responded to Congress with a statement claiming that a future release of iOS would change the process so that any app wishing to access sensitive data like contact information will require explicit user approval. That "future release", it seems, is iOS 6.

ZDNet's Ryan Naraine compared the iOS 6 permissions to Microsoft Windows, tweeting, "."

As far as I'm concerned, UAC is a solid technology that does what it was designed to do. In my opinion, the negative publicity and was more of a marketing or public relations failure on Microsoft's part than an actual issue with UAC. That said, I understand Naraine's comparison.

The problem with UAC--and with the new iOS 6 permissions--from the perspective of an average user is that it can be too overwhelming. People are inundated with pop-up alerts and dialog boxes requesting permission for this or that. They don't know enough to determine if the activity is legitimate or not, so they simply accept all requests.