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French site Mac4Ever reports that a number of users of a free Swiss traffic application for the iPhone have received telemarketing calls from callers who claim that they received the users' telephone numbers from Apple after making the application purchase.
Since Apple's privacy policy would preclude Apple from providing such information, Mac4Ever dug into the issue and discovered that an iPhone application is capable of accessing a device's mobile telephone number with just a single line of code and can then send that information back to the developer without notifying the user that their personal information has been obtained. Mac4Ever confirmed this ability by creating its own proof-of-concept iPhone application and obtaining the phone number of one of its editors' iPhones.
From a client's side, Apple is the unique entiy you can deal with (except for the support). For a developer, it's quite the same : you can only deal with Apple, who never give you an access to the client's information. But it appears that this behaviour is available since firmware 2.1! So, how can't Cupertino be aware of such a thing? And how many apps are involved?
We contacted Apple about this issue and we will keep you posted as soon as we'll receive a complete answer.
It remains unclear whether other iPhone developers beyond those behind the application cited in the report have resorted to such tactics.
