(Newser)
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It's not only contacts that can be snatched from your cellphone by apps—photos, too, can be yanked, thanks to an Apple loophole. Once a user allows an application on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch to have access to location information—to launch a mapping function, for example— the app can copy the user’s entire photo library, unbeknownst to the user, reports the New York Times. But the Times notes that it's not clear if any App Store apps are actually uploading users' images.
"It’s very strange," says one app developer, "because Apple is asking for location permission, but really what it is doing is accessing your entire photo library. The message the user is being presented with is very, very unclear." Adds another, "An app with access to location data could put together a history of where the user has been based on photo location." Apple did not respond to a Times request for comment.
