On Friday, the Federal Trade Commission issued a new staff report recommending new guidelines to be followed by key players in the rapidly expanding mobile marketplace. The goal, according to the FTC, is to better inform consumers about their data practices.
Most of the recommendations involve making sure that consumers get timely, easy-to-understand disclosures about what data they collect and how the data is used.
To read the new report, click here.
“The mobile world is expanding and innovating at breathtaking speed, allowing consumers to do things that would have been hard to imagine only a few years ago,” says FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz. “These best practices will help to safeguard consumer privacy and build trust in the mobile marketplace, ensuring that the market can continue to thrive.”
The report in question makes recommendations for a comprehensive slate of industry participants: mobile platforms (operating system providers, such as Amazon, Apple, BlackBerry, Google, and Microsoft), application (app) developers, advertising networks and analytics companies, and app developer trade associations.
Today’s FTC announcement regarding the aforementioned guidelines follow the body’s hefty fine levied against social networking app Path.
Path was fined $800,000 as a result of the company’s alleged privacy violations against its underage users.
