California AG Releases Privacy Recommendations for Mobile App Market | Practical Law

California AG Releases Privacy Recommendations for Mobile App Market | Practical Law

On January 10, 2013, California's Attorney General released Privacy on the Go: Recommendations for the Mobile Ecosystem. These recommendations are intended to encourage participants in the mobile applications market to consider, at the outset of an application's design process, ways to protect users' privacy.

California AG Releases Privacy Recommendations for Mobile App Market

Practical Law Legal Update 9-523-5131 (Approx. 3 pages)

California AG Releases Privacy Recommendations for Mobile App Market

by PLC Intellectual Property & Technology
Published on 10 Jan 2013 • USA (National/Federal)
On January 10, 2013, California's Attorney General released Privacy on the Go: Recommendations for the Mobile Ecosystem. These recommendations are intended to encourage participants in the mobile applications market to consider, at the outset of an application's design process, ways to protect users' privacy.
On January 10, 2013, California's Attorney General, Kamala D. Harris, released Privacy on the Go: Recommendations for the Mobile Ecosystem. The recommendations are part of California's ongoing effort to strengthen privacy protections for mobile application (app) users and are intended to:
  • Educate the mobile app industry and promote privacy best practices.
  • Encourage app developers and other parties in the mobile industry to consider privacy at the outset of the design process.
The recommendations suggest an approach aimed at minimizing surprises to users from unexpected privacy practices. Specific suggestions include:
  • Making a mobile app's general privacy policies easy to understand and readily available before a user downloads the app.
  • Making readily available from within an app both:
    • a short privacy statement highlighting potentially unexpected practices; and
    • privacy controls that allow users to make, review and change their privacy choices.
  • Not collecting from users personally identifiable data that is not necessary for an app's basic functionality.
Privacy on the Go also includes detailed and specific recommendations for:
  • Mobile app developers.
  • App platform providers.
  • App advertising networks.
  • Operating system developers.
  • Mobile carriers.
As part of its effort to encourage businesses to adopt privacy best practices and strengthen privacy protections for mobile app users, the California Attorney General maintains a site dedicated to Privacy Enforcement and Protection.