California Attorney General Strikes Privacy Policy Deal With Major Mobile App Stores

[dgstorm]

California's Attorney General Kamala D. Harris has come to an agreement with Google, Amazon, Apple, Rim, Microsoft, and HP to bring new privacy policy standards to their mobile application markets. These new standards will require that any software using personal information provide a privacy policy that includes what information is collected, how it is used, and who it is shared with. These policies must be clearly visible and consistently placed on the app's download screen. The six platforms will also be responsible for providing users tools for reporting non-compliant developers and holding developers with such complaints accountable. Although small, this agreement is a win for consumer's privacy and it would be nice to see more states adopt similar policies.

How concerned are you about privacy on your mobile device? Let us know in the forums.

By eDogNights

Source: Engadget

[johnomaz]

This is pretty good. I have been staring at an update to Pandora that now wants access to my entire contact list and the ability to send out text messages without my approval. There is no reason what so ever Pandora needs to see my contact list. With this, it would appear that they now need to explain why they need said access.

[trestevenson]

I have been staring at an update to Pandora that now wants access to my entire contact list and the ability to send out text messages without my approval. There is no reason what so ever Pandora needs to see my contact list.

Yeah, screw Pandora for mobile. It's due to their wack permissions that I only utilize it on my desktop.