Washington, D.C. (September 19, 2012) – Today, two Application Developers Alliance members briefed consumer privacy advocates about how mobile apps work. Michael Mayernick, co-founder of Spinnakr, and Tom Chernaik, CEO of CMP.LY, participated in the “Apps 101” session, held as part of the ongoing multi-stakeholder meetings on mobile app privacy at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). The session focused on the specifics of mobile app development, including business models, app monetization, and innovative ways apps are protecting consumer privacy.
The NTIA meetings are intended to promote improvements and consistency in the way apps communicate with consumers about collection and use of data. The purpose of today’s briefing was to give consumer advocates participating in NTIA’s multi-stakeholder process a better understanding of mobile apps as a technology and an industry.
“We believe the NTIA talks are the best chance at developing consensus-based self-regulation on mobile app transparency, and we hope the process leads to positive results for consumers and app developers,” said Alliance President Jon Potter. “We are happy that the participating consumer groups had an opportunity to hear first hand from Mr. Chernaik and Mr. Mayernick today. It is essential to our members and to the success of this process that the voice of innovators, small business owners, and developers be heard and considered.”
Spinnakr is a service that helps companies, from startups to international brands, display targeted messaging on their websites.
CMP.LY provides social media disclosure solutions that allow companies to mitigate risk, fulfill regulatory obligations and follow industry best practices.
To advance the NTIA discussions, the Alliance has been working with consumer groups including the ACLU, Consumer Action, and World Privacy Forum to identify areas of agreement and develop proposals for consideration by all stakeholders.
About the Application Developers Alliance
The Application Developers Alliance is an industry association dedicated to meeting the unique needs of application developers. Alliance members include more than 8,000 individual application developers and dozens of companies, investors, and stakeholders in the apps ecosystem.
