Contacts and Security & Privacy

Question

It's something that I didn't know till an hour ago or so, but if your application tries to access Contacts (previously, Address Book) data through the ABAddressBook Class, the user will be prompted for confirmation just as you will be prompted for confirmation when an iOS application tries to access Contacts data. Then the Security & Privacy Preferences Pane will be updated, and you will see your application listed under the Privacy list.

So if you try to access Contacts data with the application blocked, you will get an error with Xcode stating like "Address book access is denied for executable at path..." You can check the privacy status with ABAddressBookGetAuthorizationStatus() in iOS. How do you find out if your application has privacy permission in OS X?

Additionally, if you have the answer, I wonder where Mac OS stores the list of applications under the Privacy tab? I've checked User's Preferences folder. But I don't see any file with it.

Thank you for your help.

// Edit 1 // The following is an error output shown when the application attempts to access ABAddressBook with ABAddressBook *addressBook = [ABAddressBook sharedAddressBook]; :

2013-08-14 21:47:59.796 AppName[5374:1803] Address book access is denied for executable at path: /Users/Jim/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/AppName-eymlymijdmbqaldaqcaecgdyroxa/Build/Products/Debug/AppName.app/Contents/MacOS/AppName
(
    0   AddressBook                         0x00007fff8a1232fc __ABIsAccessGranted_block_invoke_0 + 36
    1   libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007fff93f5b0b6 _dispatch_client_callout + 8
    2   libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007fff93f5b041 dispatch_once_f + 50
    3   AddressBook                         0x00007fff8a123258 ABIsAccessGranted + 40
    4   AddressBook                         0x00007fff8a12319e +[ABAddressBook sharedAddressBook] + 12
    5   AppName                              0x00000001000180e7 -[AppDelegate extractWorkAddresses] + 55
    6   AppName                              0x0000000100011a68 -[AppDelegate extractWork1Address:] + 72
    7   AppKit                              0x00007fff8c9f6989 -[NSApplication sendAction:to:from:] + 342
    8   AppKit                              0x00007fff8cb2c37c -[NSMenuItem _corePerformAction] + 406
    9   AppKit                              0x00007fff8cb2c06a -[NSCarbonMenuImpl performActionWithHighlightingForItemAtIndex:] + 133
    10  AppKit                              0x00007fff8c81928f -[NSMenu _internalPerformActionForItemAtIndex:] + 36
    11  AppKit                              0x00007fff8c819117 -[NSCarbonMenuImpl _carbonCommandProcessEvent:handlerCallRef:] + 135
    12  AppKit                              0x00007fff8cb25175 NSSLMMenuEventHandler + 342
    13  HIToolbox                           0x00007fff8a84cd1a _ZL23DispatchEventToHandlersP14EventTargetRecP14OpaqueEventRefP14HandlerCallRec + 1206
    14  HIToolbox                           0x00007fff8a84c1e9 _ZL30SendEventToEventTargetInternalP14OpaqueEventRefP20OpaqueEventTargetRefP14HandlerCallRec + 410
    15  HIToolbox                           0x00007fff8a861fc9 SendEventToEventTarget + 40
    16  HIToolbox                           0x00007fff8a898ca9 _ZL18SendHICommandEventjPK9HICommandjjhPKvP20OpaqueEventTargetRefS5_PP14OpaqueEventRef + 443
    17  HIToolbox                           0x00007fff8a83da21 SendMenuCommandWithContextAndModifiers + 59
    18  HIToolbox                           0x00007fff8a83d9d3 SendMenuItemSelectedEvent + 254
    19  HIToolbox                           0x00007fff8a83d85f _ZL19FinishMenuSelectionP13SelectionDataP10MenuResultS2_ + 94
    20  HIToolbox                           0x00007fff8a8198bb _ZL14MenuSelectCoreP8MenuData5PointdjPP13OpaqueMenuRefPt + 605
    21  HIToolbox                           0x00007fff8a818ec8 _HandleMenuSelection2 + 565
    22  AppKit                              0x00007fff8c9e48f6 _NSHandleCarbonMenuEvent + 245
    23  AppKit                              0x00007fff8c906acf _DPSNextEvent + 2073
    24  AppKit                              0x00007fff8c905e22 -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 128
    25  AppKit                              0x00007fff8c8fd1d3 -[NSApplication run] + 517
    26  AppKit                              0x00007fff8c8a1c06 NSApplicationMain + 869
    27  AppName                              0x0000000100002092 main + 34
    28  AppName                              0x0000000100002064 start + 52
)

Answer 1

If the user grants access, your application can access ABAddressBook as usual. If the user denies access, the addressBook and sharedAddressBook methods of ABAddressBook return nil.

---

I don't think there is a way to avoid that exception (which doesn't match what the docs say should happen). So, you can add that section of code where you try to get the sharedAddressBook into a try catch block and avoid the app dying if the exception is thrown.