The Federal Trade Commission is once again being asked to investigate Apple and Google, this time over the ability of third parties to gather and upload photos and address book contacts without the user's consent. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) is urging the FTC to look into the two companies' privacy policies and behaviors when it comes to private user information.

Schumer cited several recent mainstream reports in his request to the FTC—reports that highlighted how third-party developers on both iOS and Android can access and upload an entire photo library or contact list to a remote server without the user's knowledge or consent. Many apps do ask for permission for some level of access, but they often don't make it clear that the information might then be uploaded—potentially over an insecure connection and placed on a potentially insecure server, at that. Users are often led to believe that their data is merely being used locally (and temporarily) by the apps in question.

"These uses go well beyond what a reasonable user understands himself to be consenting to when he allows an app to access data on the phone for purposes of the app's functionality," Schumer said in his letter. "[S]martphone makers should be required to put in place safety measures to ensure third party applications are not able to violate a user's personal privacy by stealing photographs or data that the user did not consciously decide to make public."

The Senator's inquiry comes just weeks after two US House members sent a joint letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook over essentially the same topic, demanding to know where Apple's iOS app developer policies stand when it comes to privacy. The same day, Apple issued a statement saying that it planned to issue a software update soon that "will require explicit user approval" for apps to access contact data, and a source later claimed the same fix would apply to photos. With an Apple media event looming this week and the possibility of a public release of iOS 5.1, those updates may end up on users' phones sooner than later.

Google, for its part, is maintaining its current stance on allowing access to information stored on Android devices, but says it's considering adding something that would require user permission first.

"We originally designed the Android photos file system similar to those of other computing platforms like Windows and Mac OS. At the time, images were stored on a SD card, making it easy for someone to remove the SD card from a phone and put it in a computer to view or transfer those images," a Google spokesperson told Mashable on Monday morning. "As phones and tablets have evolved to rely more on built-in, non-removable memory, we’re taking another look at this and considering adding a permission for apps to access images. We’ve always had policies in place to remove any apps on Android Market that improperly access your data."

Google's reasoning makes sense to those of us who are used to navigating file systems with various apps, but the answer isn't likely to satisfy Schumer, who wants assurance that both Apple and Google are actively taking steps to protect users. We wouldn't be surprised to eventually see Google add more layers of explicit user permission as the pressure from lawmakers increases—so why not add them now?

Listing image by Photograph by Marco Arment