Washington, D.C. (July 25, 2013) – Today, U.S. government-hosted talks on mobile app privacy concluded when leading consumer privacy advocates and mobile app industry stakeholders joined in support for a voluntary model for how apps communicate what information about consumers the apps are collecting and with what types of third parties, if any, that consumers’ data is shared.
“App developers know that consumer trust is critical to our industry’s continuing success. That is why the Alliance worked so hard for several months to forge consensus with leading privacy advocates and to extend our consensus to a broad range of industry partners. Today’s agreement that the model notices are ready for introduction and consumer testing is a win for both consumers and app developers,” said Jon Potter, President of the Application Developers Alliance.
“The voluntary, at-a-glance notice is meant to quickly and easily inform consumers what sensitive personal information the apps collect and if that information is shared. The notice will empower consumers to make informed choices based on their privacy preferences, which benefits consumers and the app industry,” Potter concluded.
At today’s meeting the model was supported by consumer groups including: the American Civil Liberties Union, Consumer Action, World Privacy Forum, Future of Privacy Forum, the Consumers Union, the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the National Consumers League.
In addition, the model was supported by leading industry stakeholders including: the Application Developers Alliance, the Computer and Communications Industry Association, CTIA-The Wireless Association, the Online Publishers Association, the Software and Information Industry Association, the Marketing Research Association, the Internet Commerce Coalition, Intuit, Lookout, TRUSTe, Verizon, and AT&T.
About the Application Developers Alliance
The Application Developers Alliance is an industry association dedicated to meeting the unique needs of application developers as creators, innovators, and entrepreneurs. Alliance members include more than 25,000 individual developers and more than 125 companies in the apps ecosystem.
