The letter, which was co-written by Representative Henry A. Waxman, a California Democrat, and Representative G.K. Butterfield, Democrat of North Carolina, asked the company to explain how applications for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch were allowed to access photos without a user’s knowledge.
Wednesday’s letter is the second sent to Mr. Cook in recent weeks by members of Congress. Last month Mr. Waxman and Mr. Butterfield asked Apple to explain why it was giving developers unlimited access to people’s address books, even though App Store rules strictly forbid such behavior.
Apple declined to comment about the letter.
Although Apple wrote a response, the congressmen did not seem satisfied with the answers.
“The March 2 reply we received from Apple does not answer a number of the questions we raised about the company’s efforts to protect the privacy and security of its mobile device users.” the congressmen said in Wednesday’s letter.
Then, citing an article written by The New York Times, the representatives raised the issue of photos on a mobile device. “In addition, subsequent to our letter, concerns have been raised about the manner in which apps can access photographs on your mobile devices and tools provided by Apple to consumers to prevent unwanted online tracking.”
This time, rather than requesting that Apple respond with a written reply, the congressmen asked for a briefing with company representatives “to address questions they previously raised in a letter last month and new concerns that have since been raised about the company’s efforts to protect the privacy of consumers of its products.”
The letter asked that Mr. Cook provide a representative who could answer questions. It did not ask that Mr. Cook answer the questions himself.