April 3rd, 2012 | Mike Sax
TRUSTe has announced a unified, open solution for mobile advertising privacy management. App developers can use the solution to address the evolving privacy compliance standards, growing consumer privacy concerns, and complicated technology requirements unique to the mobile ecosystem.
The project is currently in beta and is expected to go live in the coming months. We hope that this effort will help to resolve the issues related to the use of UDIDs in apps.
Be sure to check out TRUSTe’s Free Mobile Privacy Policy Service to generate a privacy policy for your app. Not only does having a clear privacy policy increase customer confidence, privacy policies are widely expected to become mandator for all mobile apps in the near future.
Posted in Apps, Privacy | No Comments »
April 3rd, 2012 | Jonathan Godfrey
Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com (Creative Commons)
A number of Senators from the Small Business Committee have drafted a
letter advancing an issue that should be very important to U.S. manufacturers and software innovators. Specifically, the Senators wrote to the Federal Trade Commission, reprising an issue raised by
39 state Attorneys General last November, stating that our trading partners should not be competing unfairly by using stolen software.
Software piracy is widespread, particularly so in a few countries that compete with American manufacturers. A study funded by the Business Software Alliance found the software piracy rate in China is 79%. In Mexico it is 60% and in Vietnam 85%. An alarming number of foreign manufacturers are using sophisticated software to assist with industrial design, product development, and communications management. The problem is they aren’t paying for it. American companies do.
The Senators raised an important point that I hope the FTC takes to heart. We should not be letting our foreign manufacturers gain a competitive advantage over U.S. companies by breaking the law. If the Commission can determine they are using pirated software at the expense of our domestic industries, it should use its jurisdiction over unfair trade practices to remedy the situation.
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April 2nd, 2012 | Morgan Reed
ACT filed comments today to offer guidance to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s efforts to initiate a multistakeholder process to develop privacy codes of conduct. Initial indications by the agency that it would target apps before addressing industry-wide issues is of great concern to our organization. Targeting technology instead of behavior is the cardinal sin of regulation. The key issue is not apps or the devices that run them, but consumer data. Users are concerned about their personal information and how it is collected, retained, and shared. ACT believes the NTIA should adopt a broad framework that focuses on these key elements. Ultimately, the goal is to ensure that industry practices meet consumer expectation.
The full text of our submission is here.
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