One of my kids has special needs. This means he rides a certain bus and goes to a certain school. It would be trivial to uniquely identify him for the rest of his LIFE with only the information contained in my contacts list.
So now, without consent, this “private” “friends and family”-based app I installed on my phone, plus it’s company, plus any other company they choose to do business with, or any entity that acquires them in perpetuity, or any data mining, social profiling, credit bureau, can start building far-reaching and long-lasting profiles of a four year old little boy that needs a extra help.
What part of that confuses you?
–Path uploads your entire iPhone address book to its servers | Hacker News
There’s a lot that’s, well, reactionary in the reaction to the original post of this item, but this comment in the HN thread really struck me. It’s a good reminder that contacts aren’t “just contacts”, or collections of “publicly available data”; rather they are data sets from which patterns can be discerned and distinctly non-publicly available information can be derived. Practice safe auths.
About me
Technology innovation enthusiast; entrepreneur and friend thereto; currently running Yahoo! Games and living in Los Angeles; probably oversharing on Twitter.
