Ryan Gray:

Our current Contacts apps are full data we’ve collected about other people. It’s out of date and inaccurate. It has things people wish we didn’t have. Anyone can share the data they’ve collected with anyone else. App developers can easily ask for this information (and most people will give it to them).

This is a backwards system. You should be the owner of your contact information. You should grant access to others deciding who can see what specific pieces of information. Ironically the one company that seems to best share this view is the one people trust the least to handle this kind of data: Facebook.

Ryan brings up an excellent point. As is, my Contacts database is full of outdated information. And I have no way of telling whether that information is still valid. Everything is static, a screenshot of the moment in time when I first received the contact card.

From Ryan’s proposed replacement, which he calls “People”:

Of course, you can easily share one of your cards with anyone nearby (and get theirs). But a shared card is not just sent once. It’s a subscription. If you change your phone number or if you move you’ll be able to push the updates out to anyone who is subscribed. You’ll also be able to block anyone, revoke access, or prevent someone from sharing your card.

The more I think about this the more I love the idea. I’m not sure how easy an implementation this would be, but I do think it’d be doable, at least at a very basic level. But the privacy implications would be tricky to handle properly.

That said, this is an idea I hope gets some traction and, hopefully, a look from within Apple.

[H/T Dan Murrell]