Editor’s Note: The Federal Trade Commission staff report, “Mobile Privacy Disclosures: Building Trust Through Transparency” is attached here.
From: FierceMobileGovernment
By Greg Slabodkin
In an effort to build consumer trust through transparency, the Federal Trade Commission is urging companies to do a better job of making mobile privacy disclosures by implementing the agency’s recommendations set forth in a new FTC staff report (.pdf).
As the report points out, mobile devices raise a number of potential privacy risks and informing consumers of those risks presents significant challenges. To help companies improve their mobile privacy disclosures, the report distills the commission’s prior work on these issues, along with panel discussions and written submissions, putting forward a number of recommendations for mobile platforms, application developers, advertising networks and other third parties, as well as trade associations.
When it comes to mobile platforms such as Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android, RIM’s BlackBerry OS, and Microsoft’s Windows Phone, the FTC recommends that these companies provide just-in-time disclosures to consumers and obtain their affirmative express consent before allowing apps to access sensitive content like geolocation. The agency also suggests that they provide just-in-time disclosures and obtain affirmative express consent for other content that consumers would find sensitive in many contexts, such as contacts, photos, calendar entries, or the recording of audio or video content.
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