Arun Thampi, a Singapore-based app developer and co-founder of Anideo, a mobile app development startup, has finally launched his unofficial Path client for OS X, named Journey.
The app is developed in collaboration with the other founders of Anideo and Peter Jihoon Kim, a software development consultant. Path is a new social network created in the United States that enables social sharing between a user’s close friends and family.
It was only previously available on the iPhone and Android.
Journey’s development sparked a global firestorm, not for the development of the OS X app, but for what the team discovered while working on it.
The idea for Journey came about during a hackathon session at the Anideo office on 9th February, Arun told the Straits Times. But he discovered something odd: Path uploaded his entire address book to the servers.
The same thing occurred after he re-installed the app.
Later on, he blogged about the issue and reposted it on TechMeme, a popular tech curation website. The post went viral.
Soon, prominent tech blogs, well-known personalities like Michael Arrington, and the traditional media like The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times reported on the story.
The US government even sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, seeking clarification on the iOS apps’ privacy policy. Apple then said that a future software update would require all apps to seek user permission before uploading their address books.
Path’s CEO and co-founder Dave Morin responded quickly, dishing out an apology, and making immediate changes to their app that enabled users to opt out of sharing their friends and family’s contact information.
Prior to Journey, the team at Anideo was working on Denso, a video bookmarking app. The company is funded by Eduardo Savarin, Facebook’s co-founder.
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