WebProNews » Path

Path Settles With FTC Over Privacy Issues

Chris Crum — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 16:18:10 +0000

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission announced today that Path has agreed to settle FTC charges that it deceived users by collecting personal info from mobile device address books without users’ knowledge and consent and violated COPPA .

Path is now required to establish a “comprehensive” privacy program, obtain independent privacy assessments every other year for the next 20 years (similar terms to what Google and Facebook have had to agree to in the past), and pay $800,000 for the COPPA violation.

The FTC charged that Path violated the COPPA rule by not spelling out its collection, use and disclosure policy for children’s personal info, not providing parents with direct notice of its collection, use and disclosure policy for children’s personal info, and not obtaining verifiable parental consent before collecting children’s personal info.

Path is also required to delete info collected from children under the age of 13. The company has already deleted the address book info that it collected during the time period for what the FTC calls its “deceptive practices” took place.

“Over the years the FTC has been vigilant in responding to a long list of threats to consumer privacy, whether it’s mortgage applications thrown into open trash dumpsters, kids information culled by music fan websites, or unencrypted credit card information left vulnerable to hackers,” said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz. “This settlement with Path shows that no matter what new technologies emerge, the agency will continue to safeguard the privacy of Americans.”

In related news, Leibowitz announced his resignation as FTC Chairman today. He will step down on February 15.

Path recently launched a new search feature, which lets you search “moments” your friends and family have shared on Path or other social networks like Facebook, Instagram and Foursquare.

Update: Path has issued its response to the FTC’s announcement. The company says:

Today the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it reached a settlement pending court approval with Path regarding alleged violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protections Act (COPPA). The gist of the FTC’s complaint is this: early in Path’s history, children under the age of 13 were able to sign up for accounts. A very small number of affected accounts have since been closed by Path.

As you may know, we ask users’ their birthdays during the process of creating an account. However, there was a period of time where our system was not automatically rejecting people who indicated that they were under 13. Before the FTC reached out to us, we discovered and fixed this sign-up process qualification, and took further action by suspending any under age accounts that had mistakenly been allowed to be created.
We want to share our experience and learnings in the hope that others in our industry are reminded of the importance of making sure services are in full compliance with rules like COPPA. From a developer’s perspective, we understand the tendency to focus all attention on the process of building amazing new things. It wasn’t until we gave our account verification system a second look that we realized there was a problem. We hope our experience can help others as a reminder to be cautious and diligent.

Throughout this experience and now, we stand by our number one commitment to serve our users first.

New Path Search Lets You Explore Your History On Facebook, Instagram And Foursquare

Chris Crum — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 19:45:55 +0000

Path has launched a new search feature for iOS and Android, and it’s already getting a lot of buzz. But then again, so did Path itself.

The feature is part of the latest update to the app – 2.9.

“Search allows you to instantly search moments you and your friends and family have shared on Path or have imported from other social networks like Facebook, Instagram and Foursquare,” a Path spokesperson tells WebProNews. “Search the way you think, like ‘weekend brunch’, ‘my thanksgiving’ and ‘one year ago’, or play around with the suggested search options presented every time you search.”

There are obviously some key networks missing from that list, but perhaps more additions are possible in the future.

“Or search ‘nearby, which pulls up moments your friends and family have shared around the place you’re at that very moment,” she adds. “It’s a new way to search – to tell a story, reminiscence, or find a new restaurant or place.”

PATH “Recall Memories” from Path on Vimeo.

It’s a solid feature, for sure, but as Sarah Lacy pointed out, it’s also something that could very possibly be copied by social networks that already have the users that Path doesn’t. It helps that the feature takes in data from Instagram, Foursquare, and especially Facebook. It will be interesting to see how many downloads the feature is able to inspire.

Path Launches iPad App, Says It’s Not Just A Bigger Version Of Mobile App

Chris Crum — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 15:40:39 +0000

Path has released an iPad-specific version of its iOS app, which is now available in the App Store.

“As you’ve come to expect from Path, Path for iPad is beautifully and purposely designed,” a spokesperson for the company tells WebProNews. “The larger iPad screen allows for different viewing options in both portrait and landscape modes.”

“Path for iPad is not just a bigger version of Path on mobile,” she adds. “It was built from the ground up and you’ll many new and delightful features within.”

For example, with landscape, Path will display a collage of the day’s moments on the screen, which you can swipe back and forth to experience previous days. You can tap on an image in the collage to show a full-screen view and the comments and emotions.

In portrait, there is continuous scrolling through the user’s path, which will show the day’s moments. Moments themselves will fill the width of the path. All interactions are displayed on the same screen.

Path has a reported 3 million users. Many of them have been waiting for an iPad-specific app for a long time. The wait is now over.

Path Planning To Announce Funding Round

Shawn Hess — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 15:14:15 +0000

Path is getting ready to announce the results of another multi-million dollar round of funding. At the beginning of 2011, Path announced an $8.6 million round that included contributions from Digital Garage Japan, Kleiner-Perkins-Caufield & Byers, and Index Ventures. Redpoint Ventures has led the latest round which is said to have generated an additional $40 million for Path.

Business Insider reported on the funding round at Path in late March and sources told them the valuation was set at $250 million. Path has undergone considerable changes since their launch and currently have over two million registered users.

Path is designed to be a sort of personal journal app, but in 2010 when it first became available, it was a photo sharing experience more than anything else. Today, a strategic partnership with Nike lets you share workout details with friends and family, send travel information, share location information, and even transmit sleep details. It is evolving quickly and ideally this latest round of funding will go toward more innovations for the app.

The ‘Smart Journal’ is available for iOS and Android devices and doesn’t cost users anything. Much of Path’s growing popularity is in international markets. Recently we reported that Path is taking the crowd source approach to expansion in foreign markets and have partnered with Smartling, a translation specialist, to make the collaboration possible.

Here’s what Path had to say about the expansion on their blog at the beginning of this month:

“Today we’re taking another step to improve the Path experience for those of you abroad. We have set up a new translation platform, powered by Smartling, which allows you to sign up and edit the languages available for Path, submit translations and work with others to ensure your language is fully supported in future versions of Path.”

So we can expect more great things from Path soon as they continue to grow and invest in new projects to expand the reach of their services. Technology companies like this can be hard to predict, but I would bet Path will be a winner for investors this year.

The Cash Value of Social Media Information [Infographic]

Shawn Hess — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 16:33:35 +0000

Ever wonder how our social media platforms make enough money to continue to operate? What is the value of the information we send to our social media profiles? These are interesting questions and the folks at backupify.com have been wondering about the same thing.

Backupify is in the business of backing up data in the cloud, and so for them, their next infographic is a handy tool for illustrating the inherent value of certain varieties of data.

If you’re a user of social media or an advertiser on any of the following social sites, this graphic is certainly worth taking a look at. The comparisons across different platforms are interesting, and the dollars generated are shocking in some cases.

The way organizations and individuals disseminate information is changing and so are the ways brands and products are advertised. Knowing the value of social media ad space is a first step to understanding how the social media is making a lot of folks the big money.

Take a look:

Path Crowdsources Translation to Other Languages

Shawn Hess — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 19:18:34 +0000

Path, is taking the route Twitter took in transitioning their social networking app to other countries in different languages; they’re letting the users help with the translation process. The crowdsourced approach seems to be providing great success to Path.

Here’s what they wrote on their blog:

Every day, all over the world, more people are sharing their stories with loved ones on Path. The response internationally has been amazing. We’ve heard from students and professors to avid travelers and programmers — all offering time and knowledge to help improve our translations. We thank you for your help!

Working with Smartling, a translation specialist, and many volunteers from around the globe. Path is set to offer their services in Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Swedish, Japanese, Korean, and Simplified Chinese. In the future we are planning to add Traditional Chinese, Thai, Arabic, Bahasa Indonesian, Russian, Turkish, Malay, Dutch, Greek, Norwegian Bokmål, and English (UK).

More from their blog:

Today we’re taking another step to improve the Path experience for those of you abroad. We have set up a new translation platform, powered by Smartling, which allows you to sign up and edit the languages available for Path, submit translations and work with others to ensure your language is fully supported in future versions of Path.

So it sounds like they’re are on the right path to success with their platform. Allowing others to help with the translation is a great way to tackle the challenge of getting foreign language users on board. We’ll keep you updated on how their progress is coming.

Britney Spears Sees Dave Morin and Path

Lee Hester — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 21:42:30 +0000

Britney Spears was seen yesterday in the Silicon Valley, sitting at the boardroom table at the offices of Path, visiting with it’s founder Dave Morin. Spears is very familiar with social media and has over 14 million followers on Twitter. Britney created a Path account, even though the mobile social network has a limit of 150 friends.

According to their website, Path defines itself as the simple and private way to share life with close friends and family. Founded by Dave Morin, who was previously part of the inventing team behind Platform and Connect at Facebook with Shawn Fanning, creator of Napster and Dustin Mierau of Macster.

Path is currently looking for funding. The word is the company is looking to bring in between $25 and $30 million. Existing investors and others are interested. The company raised $11.2 million in funding last go round and experienced incredible growth.

@mattmatt
Matt MattesonBritney came by today, and tweeted about it to 14 million people.

Congress Questions Apple On Address Book Controversy

Shaylin Clark — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 20:41:06 +0000

Last week news broke that the popular photo-based social networking app Path was uploading and storing users’ iPhone address books on their servers, in apparent violation of Apple’s development guidelines. Path set a land speed record for corporate response, apologizing and issuing an update to the iOS version of Path that allowed users to opt out of contact collection (a feature that had apparently been present in the Android version for awhile).

In the aftermath of the discovery about Path it has come to light that several other iOS apps store and transmit user data. Yesterday Forbes reported on a study from last year which found that while most apps respected user privacy, more than half leaked an iPhone’s unique device ID to third parties. To top things off, this morning we brought you news that Twitter’s iOS app also collects users’ contact lists.

Now it seems the scandal has caught the attention of two U.S. Congressmen. Congressmen Henry Waxman, House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman, and G.K. Butterfield, Commerce Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee Chair, sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook today. The letter, which was also sent to Path CEO Dave Morin, poses a series of questions about the ability of apps to access private user data. The questions touch on issues and processes that Apple has historically been reluctant to allow into the light of day, including the app approval process. The questions also deal with whether a user’s address book constitutes user data, and how many apps in the App Store store and transmit user data. The letter is included in full below.

February 15, 2012
Mr. Tim Cook
Chief Executive Officer, Apple Inc.
1 Infinite Loop
Cupertino, CA 95014

Dear Mr. Cook:
Last week, independent iOS app developer Arun Thampi blogged about his discovery that the social networking app “Path” was accessing and collecting the contents of his iPhone address book without ever having asked for his consent. The information taken without his permission – or that of the individual contacts who own that information – included full names, phone numbers, and email addresses. Following media coverage of Mr. Thampi’s discovery, Path’s Co-Founder and CEO Dave Morin quickly apologized, promised to delete from Path’s servers all data it had taken from its users’ address books, and announced the release of a new version of Path that would prompt users to opt in to sharing their address book contacts.

This incident raises questions about whether Apple’s iOS app developer policies and practices may fall short when it comes to protecting the information of iPhone users and their contacts.

The data management section of your iOS developer website states: “iOS has a comprehensive collection of tools and frameworks for storing, accessing, and sharing data. . . . iOS apps even have access to a device’s global data such as contacts in the Address Book, and photos in the Photo Library.” The app store review guidelines section states: “We review every app on the App Store based on a set of technical, content, and design criteria. This review criteria is now available to you in the App Store Review Guidelines.” This same section indicates that the guidelines are available only to registered members of the iOS Developer Program. However, tech blogs following the Path controversy indicate that the iOS App Guidelines require apps to get a user’s permission before “transmit[ting] data about a user”.

In spite of this guidance, claims have been made that “there’s a quiet understanding among many iOS app developers that it is acceptable to send a user’s entire address book, without their permission, to remote servers and then store it for future reference. It’s common practice, and many companies likely have your address book stored in their database.” One blogger claims to have conducted a survey of developers of popular iOS apps and found that 13 of 15 had a “contacts database with millions of records” – with one claiming to have a database containing “Mark Zuckerberg’s cell phone number, Larry Ellison’s home phone number and Bill Gates’ cell phone number.”

The fact that the previous version of Path was able to gain approval for distribution through the Apple iTunes Store despite taking the contents of users’ address books without their permission suggests that there could be some truth to these claims. To more fully understand and assess these claims, we are requesting that you respond to the following questions:

1. Please describe all iOS App Guidelines that concern criteria related to the privacy and security of data that will be accessed or transmitted by an app.

2. Please describe how you determine whether an app meets those criteria.

3. What data do you consider to be “data about a user” that is subject to the requirement that the app obtain the user’s consent before it is transmitted?

4. To the extent not addressed in the response to question 2, please describe how you determine whether an app will transmit “data about a user” and whether the consent requirement has been met.

5. How many iOS apps in the U.S. iTunes Store transmit “data about a user”?

6. Do you consider the contents of the address book to be “data about a user”?

7. Do you consider the contents of the address book to be data of the contact? If not, please explain why not. Please explain how you protect the privacy and security interests of that contact in his or her information.

8. How many iOS apps in the U.S. iTunes Store transmit information from the address book? How many of those ask for the user’s consent before transmitting their contacts’ information?

9. You have built into your devices the ability to turn off in one place the transmission of location information entirely or on an app-by-app basis. Please explain why you have not done the same for address book information.

Please provide the information requested no later than February 29, 2012. If you have any questions regarding this request, you can contact Felipe Mendoza with the Energy and Commerce Committee Staff at 202-226-3400.

Sincerely,

Henry A. Waxman
Ranking Member

G.K. Butterfield
Ranking Member

Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade

cc: Dave Morin
Path, Co-Founder and CEO

Apple wasted no time in responding to the letter. In a statement to AllThingsD, Apple said that “Apps that collect or transmit a user’s contact data without their prior permission are in violation of our guidelines,” and that in the future, “any app wishing to access contact data will require explicit user approval in a future software release.”

As it happens, Apple has a new iOS release in the works now: iOS 5.1 will most likely launch with the iPad 3 next month. Now it will almost certainly include a system setting allowing users to turn off address book access system wide, or app-by-app, just as with location services.

Path: “We Are Sorry” For Uploading Your Data

Shaylin Clark — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:44:23 +0000

Yesterday we brought you news that social networking app Path had been discovered uploading users’ mobile phone contacts. Distressingly, the app did not offer users the chance to opt out, nor did it even notify users that their information was being uploaded. In response to the blog post wherein this was pointed out, Path CEO Dave Morin said that the most recent update to Path for Android had already included an opt-out feature, and that the forthcoming iOS update to Path, version 2.0.6, would include it as well.

Today, Path 2.0.6 for iOS went live in the App Store. In addition, Path emailed me the following statement from Morin about the situation:

We are sorry.

We made a mistake. Over the last couple of days users brought to light an issue concerning how we handle your personal information on Path, specifically the transmission and storage of your phone contacts.

As our mission is to build the world’s first personal network, a trusted place for you to journal and share life with close friends and family, we take the storage and transmission of your personal information very very seriously.

Through the feedback we’ve received from all of you, we now understand that the way we had designed our ‘Add Friends’ feature was wrong. We are deeply sorry if you were uncomfortable with how our application used your phone contacts.

In the interest of complete transparency we want to clarify that the use of this information is limited to improving the quality of friend suggestions when you use the ‘Add Friends’ feature and to notify you when one of your contacts joins Path––nothing else. We always transmit this and any other information you share on Path to our servers over an encrypted connection. It is also stored securely on our servers using industry standard firewall technology.

We believe you should have control when it comes to sharing your personal information. We also believe that actions speak louder than words. So, as a clear signal of our commitment to your privacy, we’ve deleted the entire collection of user uploaded contact information from our servers. Your trust matters to us and we want you to feel completely in control of your information on Path.

In Path 2.0.6, released to the App Store today, you are prompted to opt in or out of sharing your phone’s contacts with our servers in order to find your friends and family on Path. If you accept and later decide you would like to revoke this access, please send an email to service@path.com and we will promptly see to it that your contact information are removed.

We care deeply about your privacy and about creating a trusted place for you to share life with your close friends and family. As we continue to expand and grow we will make some mistakes along the way. We commit to you that we will continue to be transparent and always serve you first, our users.

We hope this update clears up any confusion. You can find Path 2.0.6 in the App Store here:http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/path/id403639508?mt=8

The statement was also posted on Path’s blog.

What do you think? Does the update make amends for Path’s misstep? Sound off in the comments.

Path Uploads Your Address Book To Their Servers

Shaylin Clark — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:56:41 +0000

An iOS developer has made a surprising and somewhat alarming discovery about the iPhone app published by social network Path. Arun Thampi of Singapore was digging around in Path when he discovered that the app uploads the entire contents of the user’s iPhone address book to Path’s servers.

Thampi broke the news in a post on his blog earlier today, where he also posted screenshots and a detailed explanation of the process he used to make his discovery. While Thampi is quick to say that he isn’t accusing Path of anything insidious, he also calls the fact that the app uploads his entire address book “a little creepy.” Path users are not asked to opt-in in order to allow their address book to be uploaded, nor are they even informed that the app does so.

Not long after the post went up on Thampi’s blog, Dave Morin, CEO and Co-Founder of Path, posted a comment to explain the situation. He assured Thampi (and all his readers) that Path takes this issue very seriously. He said that Paul uploads users’ address books “in order to help the user find and connect to their friends and family on Path quickly and effeciently [sic].” He insists that the kind of matching Path uses the address book for is important, but also acknowledges that users ought to understand what’s going on. It seems the update to Path for Android released a few weeks ago gives users the opportunity to opt in, and the forthcoming Path 2.0.6 for iOS will do the same.

Thampi’s readers, however, have not been inclined to let Morin off the hook quite so easily. When asked by iOS developer Matt Gemmell why the address book uploading wasn’t opt-in from the beginning, Morin insisted that it is “currently the industry best practice and the App Store guidelines do not specifically discuss contact information.” When asked how users can get their contact information removed from Path’s servers, Morin says that the data of users who opt out (once the functionality is available) will be deleted. In the meanwhile, users can email Path directly to request deletion of their address book data.