FTC report makes mobile privacy recommendations

A new Federal Trade Commission report offers suggestions to “the major participants in the mobile ecosystem” on providing privacy information and transparency to customers. Titled “Mobile Privacy Disclosures: Building Trust Through Transparency,” the report makes a number of recommendations to developers of apps and operating system providers. The suggestions for system providers, such as Apple, include “developing icons to depict the transmission of user data,” making a “Do Not Track” mechanism available that allows consumers to stop third-party tracking, and providing “just-in-time disclosures” to consumers before apps can “access sensitive contact like geolocation,” among other recommendations. App developers are urged to provide similar disclosures while making privacy policies easily accessible within app stores. The FTC recently amended its rules for the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).