At WWDC this week, Apple announced that iOS 13 will block developers from accessing data from the “Notes” field of the Contacts app. TechCrunch explains that this is because of a user habit where they store sensitive information in that Notes field.
The report notes that many iPhone users adopted the Notes section of the Contacts app as a makeshift address book and password manager. Security professionals have warned against this practice, but the user habit has been hard to break.
In past versions of iOS, when developers requested access to the Contacts application, they would receive all of the data from the Notes field. Now, however, Apple is blocking developers from accessing the Notes data in Contacts over the aforementioned security concerns:
Apple pointed out that most apps have no need for this data in the first place. If a developer actually needs it, however, they will be able to file a request for an exception to the new rule.
The Notes field, Apple said, could include potentially sensitive details like sneaky comments about the boss. In reality, many users’ Notes field may have contained much worse than that.
