3 ms·

I don't think they can, not without forbidding apps from getting access to the entire address book altogether. That would rule out a whole class of apps that a

I don't think they can, not without forbidding apps from getting access to the entire address book altogether. That would rule out a whole class of apps that actually need that functionality (WhatsApp, for example). A good citizen on iOS (as of iOS 8) that wants to get a single contact from the address book will always use the system contact picker to choose a single contact without requiring full access to the user's address book. That's opt-in, though; a bad actor can still require that the user give full access to the address book. You (as a user) just have to hope that the review process caught whether or not an app is being misleading about what it intends to do with your contact info.

tracker1 12y ago
If the OS provided an interface for SELECT_CONTACT or SELECT_CONTACTS that allows for single or multi-select... then can only see the contact info for the contact selected, that would be cleaner, and not expose all of one's contacts.
- JonathonW 12y ago
  That's exactly what the system contact picker does (it gives the app access to the selected contact, without giving the app access to other contacts or to future changes to the selected contact). There are apps out there where exposing all your contacts is a desirable behavior, though, so they can't get rid of the "read all contacts" permission.