The company's response to earlier questions about access to address-book data was inadequate, they said Two U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday asked Apple representatives to brief members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on the company’s mobile privacy policies, saying a letter from Apple did not answer all of their questions. The request is the latest development in a controversy over whether iOS apps need to ask for an iPhone owner’s consent before gathering contact information from the phone. The issue arose after reports that the social-networking app Path was accessing and collecting iPhone users’ address book data without seeking their consent.Rep. Henry Waxman, ranking member of the committee, and Rep. G.K. Butterfield, ranking member of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade, wrote to Apple CEO Tim Cook on Feb. 15, citing the Path issue and asking nine questions about Apple’s iOS app developer policies regarding privacy. Apple responded on March 2 with a letter that outlined its iOS app review guidelines, noting that the rules said apps could not transmit data about a user without obtaining prior permission and informing them how and where the data would be used. It said “the vast majority” of the 550,000 apps from third parties don’t collect or transmit any user data. The company has also announced that a future software release will include a mechanism for explicit user consent to access address-book data, similar to the current consent process for location data. On Wednesday, Waxman and Butterfield wrote back to Cook and said the March 2 letter didn’t answer all of their questions. They also raised new questions about reports that apps can access photos on Apple mobile devices. “To help us understand these issues, we request that you make available representatives to brief our staff on the Energy and Commerce Committee,” Waxman and Butterfield wrote. Waxman, of California, and Butterfield, of North Carolina, are both Democrats. Pressure on mobile privacy is also coming from other quarters in the government. On March 5, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York, asked the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to investigate Apple and Google’s allowing apps to access the photos on users’ phones.Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday’s letter.Stephen Lawson covers mobile, storage and networking technologies for The IDG News Service. Follow Stephen on Twitter at @sdlawsonmedia. Stephen’s e-mail address is stephen_lawson@idg.com Related content news Okta launches Cybersecurity Workforce Development Initiative New philanthropic and educational grants aim to advance inclusive pathways into cybersecurity and technology careers. By Michael Hill Oct 04, 2023 3 mins IT Skills Careers Security news New critical AI vulnerabilities in TorchServe put thousands of AI models at risk The vulnerabilities can completely compromise the AI infrastructure of the world’s biggest businesses, Oligo Security said. By Shweta Sharma Oct 04, 2023 4 mins Vulnerabilities news ChatGPT “not a reliable” tool for detecting vulnerabilities in developed code NCC Group report claims machine learning models show strong promise in detecting novel zero-day attacks. By Michael Hill Oct 04, 2023 3 mins DevSecOps Generative AI Vulnerabilities news Google Chrome zero-day jumps onto CISA's known vulnerability list A serious security flaw in Google Chrome, which was discovered under active exploitation in the wild, is a new addition to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency’s Known Exploited vulnerabilities catalog. By Jon Gold Oct 03, 2023 3 mins Zero-day vulnerability Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe