Back in January an analytics firm called Flurry published a post discussing a possible tablet coming from Apple, what we now know as the iPad. Needless to say this information was not official and could be considered a "leak", but how did this data leak? Well apparently some testers at Apple installed certain apps to test on the iPad prototypes, some of these apps had Flurry's analytic software that sent data back to flurry. Flurry mined the data and figured out details that pointed to Apple developing a new product. Furthermore, they also noticed that Apple was testing the upcoming iOS 4.0 on their campus.
In April, Apple decided to modify the app store conditions to ban the use of analytics tools such as Flurry's. In a recent interview, at the D8 conference, Steve Jobs (Apple CEO) discussed the ban. He claims that analytics tools that behave like Flurry's break their privacy and terms of use, in addition to breaking the privacy of the app users; and in my opinion he is right.
Flurry allegedly gathered app user's personal data without consent or at the very least detailing what kind of metrics they actually tracked. I understand that more data could lead to a better, customized marketing experience for the user, but where do we draw the line?
From Apple's point of view Flurry's post or data mining could lead to potential economic loss. The kind of data they released could affect Apple's stock price and market confidence. It can also reduce competitive advantage by disclosing technical data from Apple devices to the competition.
From a consumer's point of view I'm concern for the lack of disclosure. The fact that they could collect my personal data and they don't ask for my permission or give me the choice NOT to use the app is unethical or questionable at best.
This is just another issue of privacy that has been raised over the last few months. I think that we are just starting to notice and things will get worst... the gray area will become bigger and will be entered by many. Hopefully we, the users, will be able to force companies to adjust privacy for our protection or hope that we reach a happy medium between privacy and marketing data mining. But is there really a happy medium?
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I agree with you Joe, many times when companies collect data without informing their consumer's that they are doing so. However, I do not think Apple banned this application because they disagree with the collecting this information. I suspect Apple does not want to share any of their data which they themselves are probably collecting. Also I think all of this publicity associated with their new products being 'leaked' is great for them. A prime example is the new iphone 4g. I think the amount of free advertising apple got from the incident was incredible. As the old adage goes, "there is no such thing as bad publicity!", holds true. I would not doubt that this is part of some secret guerilla style viral marketing concocted by Steve Jobs.
Regardless I do not think Apple cares about our privacy or analytics, they only care about controlling 'user experience'; in other words they want to manage our privacy instead of someone else.
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