AddressBook privacy settings not enforced

Question

I'm doing some working getting an app to line up with the new privacy settings in iOS 8. I've completed the requirements satisfactorily for camera access and now I'm taking a look at how this app access the address book. I'm new to working with address book APIs so these questions may have obvious answers.

As with camera access, I was thinking that access to contacts would behave similarly with respect to the status of the privacy settings granted to the app. The thing is, so far, no matter what the value of ABAuthorizationStatus is - kABAuthorizationStatusNotDetermined or kABAuthorizationStatusDenied - access is always allowed.

Also, when the status is kABAuthorizationStatusNotDetermined, the 'Okay/Don't Allow' dialog is never displayed to the user (I've erased the phone and resinstalled the app to confirm). Furthermore, the app never shows up under the privacy settings. I assume this is because the status is always kABAuthorizationStatusNotDetermined.

The code to initiate access to contacts is below. The controller is shown (read only) and contacts' information can be obtained. Delegate code not shown.

// Debug - Value is always denied or not determined.
ABAuthorizationStatus status = ABAddressBookGetAuthorizationStatus();

// Existing code since iOS 7 - always works despite status.
ABPeoplePickerNavigationController *picker = [[ABPeoplePickerNavigationController alloc] init];
picker.peoplePickerDelegate = self;
[self presentViewController:picker animated:YES completion:nil];

It's great that everything seems to be working but I'd like what, if anything, I'm doing wrong.

iPhone 6, iOS 8.0.2, Xcode 6

Thanks!

Answer 1

From what I've found (and I could be wrong) while dealing with updating a code base to correctly deal with the new privacy settings in iOS 8 is that such settings are not respected uniformly across features. For example, without changes to address privacy settings for locations, access to CLLocationManager won't work. Depending on the app, this may appear to the user as though nothing is happening or an error message may appear. However, if no such changes are made for address book privacy settings, access is always granted.

I figured out my error after stumbling upon some extremely helpful example code posted by Apple. Below is code I add/modified so that privacy settings are respected properly in the app I work on. When I find the link to the code example I will post it.

-(void) presentAddressBookPicker {
    switch (ABAddressBookGetAuthorizationStatus()) {
        case kABAuthorizationStatusAuthorized:
            [self accessGrantedForAddressBook];
            break;
        case kABAuthorizationStatusNotDetermined:
            [self requestAccessToAddressBook];
            break;
        case kABAuthorizationStatusRestricted:
        case kABAuthorizationStatusDenied:
        {
            UIAlertView *alert = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:nil
                                                            message:@"Unable to access address book"
                                                           delegate:nil
                                                  cancelButtonTitle:@"Ok"
                                                  otherButtonTitles:nil];
            [alert show];
        }
        break;
        default:
            // Unlikely but log it anyway.
            DLog(@"Unknown address book status.");
            break;
    }
}

-(void) accessGrantedForAddressBook {
    ABPeoplePickerNavigationController *picker = [[ABPeoplePickerNavigationController alloc] init];
    picker.peoplePickerDelegate = self;
    [self presentViewController:picker animated:YES completion:nil];
}

-(void) requestAccessToAddressBook {
    __weak MyWebViewController* weakSelf = self;

    ABAddressBookRef addressBook = ABAddressBookCreateWithOptions(NULL, NULL);
    ABAddressBookRequestAccessWithCompletion(addressBook, ^(bool granted, CFErrorRef error) {
        if (granted) {
            dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
                [weakSelf accessGrantedForAddressBook];
            });
        }

        CFRelease(addressBook);
    });
}