California AG Announces Industry Agreement on Mobile App Privacy | Practical Law

California AG Announces Industry Agreement on Mobile App Privacy | Practical Law

On February 22, 2012, the California Attorney General announced an agreement with six leading operators of mobile application platforms to strengthen privacy protections for consumers who use mobile applications.

California AG Announces Industry Agreement on Mobile App Privacy

Practical Law Legal Update 8-518-1548 (Approx. 3 pages)

California AG Announces Industry Agreement on Mobile App Privacy

by PLC Intellectual Property & Technology
Published on 23 Feb 2012 • USA (National/Federal)
On February 22, 2012, the California Attorney General announced an agreement with six leading operators of mobile application platforms to strengthen privacy protections for consumers who use mobile applications.
In a February 22, 2012 press release, the California Attorney General announced an agreement with six leading mobile application platform operators to strengthen privacy protections for users of mobile applications. Although not legally binding, the agreement is characterized as global and designed to align the industry with California's Online Privacy Protection Act which requires mobile applications that collect personal information to have a privacy policy.
The participating mobile application platform operators are:
  • Amazon.com.
  • Apple Inc.
  • Google Inc.
  • Hewlett-Packard Company.
  • Microsoft.
  • Research In Motion.
Principles the participating companies agreed to include:
  • Where applicable law requires, an application that collects personal data must conspicuously post a privacy policy or other statement describing the applications' privacy practices, providing clear and complete information regarding how personal data is collected, used and shared.
  • The companies will include, in the application submission process for new or updated applications, links to either an optional data field for a hyperlink to the application's privacy policy or to a statement describing the application's privacy practices, or an optional data field for the text of or a statement describing the application's privacy practices.
  • The companies have or will implement a means for users to report applications that do not comply with applicable terms of service or the law.
  • The companies have or will implement a process for responding to reported cases of noncompliance with applicable terms of service or laws.
  • The companies will continue to work with the California Attorney General to develop best practices for mobile privacy in general and model mobile privacy policies in particular and will convene in six months to evaluate privacy in the mobile space.
If an application developer does not comply with its stated privacy policy, it can be prosecuted under California's Unfair Competition Law and California's False Advertising Law.