Peter A Clarke

The US Federal Trade Commission has been raising concerns for some time regarding privacy weaknesses in mobile apps,including taking actions against some app developers.  Mobile shopping apps are popular and almost ubiquitous.  But, as in the FTC reports in What’s the Deal there are real problems with notices to consumers about data collection and use and data security practices.

Regarding collection of consumer data the FTC found that a majority of the surveyed apps had vaguely drafted  privacy disclosures with broad rights to collect, use, and share information. The broad discretion in the US is not present in Australia as to sharing of customer data but the poor drafting of disclosures and privacy policies is not a US problem only.

The privacy framework of mobile apps is often an afterthought and are often deficient (see my post on subject here).