Earlier today Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple Responds to U.S. Lawmakers about iPhones using 'Hey Siri' to collect user Audio Recordings." In that report we noted that Apple admitted that it doesn't nor can it "monitor what developers do with the customer data they have collected, or prevent the onward transfer of that data, nor do we have the ability to ensure a developer's compliance with their own privacy policies or local law." In other words, while Apple isn't dipping into your data, their developers can and do use customer data to sell or use it as they see fit. So why does that make Apple the good guys when it comes to privacy?"

Apple is making an effort to keep the government out of your iPhone, even if you're a rapist, murderer, MS 13 gang member etc. The more that they thwart local cops, the FBI or other government agencies, the more applause Apple gets from its fan base.

Yet on the issue of customer data abuse, it's now clear, by Apple's own admission, that they're really not much better than others who are being slammed in the press for lax protection of user data.

A Bloomberg report posted today by Sarah Frier titled "Is Apple Really Your Privacy Hero?" mercilessly hammers Apple for this contradiction if not outright hypocrisy.

The report noted that "Bloomberg News recently reported that for years iPhone app developers have been allowed to store and sell data from users who allow access to their contact lists, which, in addition to phone numbers, may include other people's photos and home addresses.

According to some security experts, the Notes section—where people sometimes list Social Security numbers for their spouses or children or the entry codes for their apartment buildings—is particularly sensitive. Last month Apple added a rule to its contract with app makers banning the storage and sale of such data. It was done with little fanfare, probably because it won't make much of a difference, according to Frier.

The report further notes that "When developers get our information, and that of the acquaintances in our contacts list, it's theirs to use and move around unseen by Apple. It can be sold to data brokers, shared with political campaigns, or posted on the internet. While the new rule forbids that, Apple does nothing to make it technically difficult for developers to harvest the information. This is the kind of situation that landed Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in 10 hours of congressional testimony in April."

Further into the report Frier notes that "Apple has the ingredients for a Cambridge Analytica-type blowup, but it's successfully convinced the public that it has its users' best interests at heart with its existing, unenforceable policies. Indeed, Bloomberg's report about the app makers' data access elicited positive commentary from lawmakers and privacy advocates about the potential benefit of Apple's rule—and little mention of the 10 years of minimal oversight that preceded it.

Jennifer King, director of consumer privacy at Stanford's Center for Internet and Society stated for the report that "If Apple wants to truly be an advocate for consumer privacy, it could take the lead in building a better system—one that lets its customers more directly control who has their data. Companies don't go out of their way to give users deeper control over their contact lists because it's not beneficial to the bottom line. Nobody has really reimagined the address book since we made them electronic in the '90s. It's just a phone book, and there's no way to lock down information or privilege certain types."

For more on this, check out the full Bloomberg report here. I'm sure that many Apple fans will vehemently disagree with Bloomberg's article and you can make your position known on this in our comment section below.

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