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Apple and Other Mobile App Distributors Agree to New Privacy Policy Notification Standards

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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The California Attorney General's office today announced that Apple, Google, and other companies running mobile app marketplaces have agreed to implement new standards for notifying users of privacy policies associated with apps offered in their stores. The provisions will require that developers of apps that collect personal information include privacy policies with their app sthat can be viewed directly from the store before downloading the apps themselves.
Attorney General Harris forged the agreement with six companies whose platforms comprise the majority of the mobile apps market: Amazon, Apple, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and Research In Motion. These platforms have agreed to privacy principles designed to bring the industry in line with a California law requiring mobile apps that collect personal information to have a privacy policy. The majority of mobile apps sold today do not contain a privacy policy.
Click to expand...
Links to privacy policies will be in consistent locations within the App Store and other marketplaces, offering users the ability to view the policies at a glance. Developers who do not comply with these requirements can be charged under California law, and Apple and the other companies signing on to the agreement have pledged to educate developers about privacy policy requirements and help them to meet the standards.

Finally, the agreement requires that the companies provide simple methods for users to report apps that do not comply with privacy requirements, as well as systems for dealing with those reports.

Following publicity about location-tracking and privacy on mobile devices last year, U.S. Senator Al Franken sent letters to Apple and Google specifically asking if they would be willing to require clear privacy policies for apps distributed through their stores.

Apple's Bud Tribble had noted during a Senate hearing on mobile privacy that privacy policies from developers would not go far enough in protecting users' information, arguing that Apple's own efforts to provide visual indicators of information sharing such as an icon becoming visible when the user's location is being transmitted are more effective at policing privacy issues.

Article Link: Apple and Other Mobile App Distributors Agree to New Privacy Policy Notification Standards
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2012/02/22/apple-and-other-mobile-app-distributors-agree-to-new-privacy-policy-notification-standards/
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geofffitch

macrumors newbie
Mar 7, 2008
18
5
Great, legalese to the rescue

I can't believe this is seen as an answer to anything - a link to pages of legalese in which some important information is buried. When will we have some real privacy regulation in this country?
 
Starship77

Starship77

macrumors regular
Aug 30, 2006
206
116
That's the problem, no one reads the privacy policy. The "sharing location" icon works much better. They should have something similar for apps that use other information like your contacts, etc...
 
Peace

Peace

Cancelled
Apr 1, 2005
19,546
4,556
Space The Only Frontier
So. Basically this new standard just tells devs to include a statement that they are collecting your address book but there is still no way to disable it. It's either use my app and I collect you address book or don't use my app.

:confused:
 
Menopause

Menopause

macrumors 6502a
Feb 26, 2011
663
1,807
On an unrelated topic: who else is dying to see some new iPad 3 rumors/news? :)
 
AriX

AriX

macrumors 6502
Jan 8, 2007
349
0
So, more stuff for users to not read? What problem is this solving?
 
M

MSlaw

macrumors regular
Aug 11, 2010
108
2
AriX said:
So, more stuff for users to not read? What problem is this solving?
Click to expand...

Malicious devs get fined for breaking privacy rules. (Like the whole address book thing). Less bitching and complaining about privacy on rumor sites.
 
ChristianVirtual

ChristianVirtual

macrumors 601
May 10, 2010
4,122
282
日本
I want just a switch in system setting to block my adress book or SMS or whatever being accessed by apps; very simple. Similar to location services.
 
H

H2SO4

macrumors 603
Nov 4, 2008
5,651
6,937
Peace said:
It's either use my app and I collect you address book or don't use my app.

:confused:
Click to expand...

Can't see anyhting wrong with that personally. I am confused about the California law bit. What, this only applies in that state?
 
Sedulous

Sedulous

macrumors 68030
Dec 10, 2002
2,530
2,577
ChristianJapan said:
I want just a switch in system setting to block my adress book or SMS or whatever being accessed by apps; very simple. Similar to location services.
Click to expand...

I very much like this idea. There are plenty of fly-by-night devs that could steal tons of information and there isn't a thing Apple or anyone else could do about it.
 
RalfTheDog

RalfTheDog

macrumors 68020
Feb 23, 2010
2,115
1,869
Lagrange Point
Menopause said:
On an unrelated topic: who else is dying to see some new iPad 3 rumors/news? :)
Click to expand...

On an unrelated topic: The new iPad 3 will come with a new privacy policy.


ChristianJapan said:
I want just a switch in system setting to block my adress book or SMS or whatever being accessed by apps; very simple. Similar to location services.
Click to expand...

Even better, each app must ask permission from the user before they get access.
 
Shrink

Shrink

macrumors G3
Feb 26, 2011
8,929
1,727
New England, USA
There is an app (plug-in?) that I downloaded which blocks all the various networks and companies for gaining information when you use an app or visit a website. It's called "Do Not Track Plus". I found it through CNET's Security Newsletter. I appears to block such information gathering sources as Google Analytic, Quantcast, ad tracking organizations and the like.

Perhaps it's worth looking into, in addition to whatever privacy notices one is encouraged to read. This seem to take action on the privacy front. You can check it out on http://www.Abine.com.
 
Consultant

Consultant

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,314
34
So the shady developers will just make the privacy policy so long no one would read it?
 
B

blow45

macrumors 68000
Jan 18, 2011
1,576
0
what privacy policy... we are all constantly living under surveillance and daily tracking of our habits from a multitude of corporations, government organizations, marketeers and the like. We have to live with this and that's the way it is.

Sites like facebook are making tons of money off our personal information data. Why should somebody be making money using my personal information as capital?

Legislation has been extremely slow, naive and lenient in taking care of such mega corporations that are data holders such as google and Facebook, and of course to a much lesser extent apple.
 
thewitt

thewitt

macrumors 68020
Sep 13, 2011
2,102
1,523
The iOS API update will require you to give permission for an app to access your address book, just as it does with location data today.

The Privacy Policy is for the LAWYERS, not for the USERS. It's a knee jerk reaction and new legislation because we somehow keep electing lawyers to public office - and lawyers make laws... Every problem solution requires a new law and associated hoop jumping.

No one will read the Privacy Policies. It's just another Accept button to press during the purchase process.

It also is not required to give Apple teeth to dump a developer - they have that today. It will make it easier for lawyers to file against a developer in violation though, and after all, the guys we elect as politicians need to keep their law offices busy filing those class action suits...
 
N

namdnalsiroj

macrumors newbie
Sep 30, 2008
10
0
People (and legislators) should be more aware that free services are payed for by selling your personal information.

A move like this may be marketed as protecting customers, but there's also an aspect of big companies teaming up to control who can own this information.
Such rules will surely not prevent Apple and Google themselves from using their customers' personal info.
Even with agreements between companies, this is still a subject legislators should pay attention to.
 
I

ihateilove

macrumors newbie
Feb 8, 2011
28
0
This deal's nothing but a whitewash, designed as a shield against any future regulatory enforcement. Meanwhile the data will continue to be collected for another few months as it has been for years. What galls me isn't the lack of transparency, or the lack of a statement to say this data has been collected for years, but the lack of any form of enforcement activity. I anticipate that by the time government puts in place proper individual privacy protection, all our data will already have been grabbed by these unaccountable corporations. I like to imagine Apple is a better citizen in this regard, but am not always convinced.
 
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S

scotpole

macrumors member
Apr 4, 2006
38
0
Pay me

When I use software, I must pay the software company for the use of their software. When people track me on the internet they put software, most of the time called cookies, on my computer. This software is often used to track me on the internet, find who my friends are on Facebook, and use the 250,000,000 a day tweets to push advertising at me that these companies think I want.

What is wrong with this is that my consent for this software was never obtained. It is my computer and I should be able to control the software I put on my computer. It makes trouble shooting a heck of a lot easier.

I consider cookies about as useful as a good virus. I do not want them on my computer. The final insult of cookies is that the virus writer of the particular cookie has never paid me. They have installed software on my computer that I do not want. This software collects marketing information for the cookie monsters, and they have not paid me. If I have to pay for commercial software that I want, then I should have the right to refuse all tracking software placed on my computer like a good virus. I should also be paid. Great and small marketing strategies are all dependent on the sites I visit, then adds are pushed at me because of this marketing device that I did not request.

I just wonder if I am getting the true searches I want, or if all my searches are not listed in the probability of match, but in the probability of being able to sell me something.

If you pay me to for cookies maybe I'll allow them to be placed on my computer. But just like my payments to software companies, the price will be significant.
 
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