If you use an iPhone, iPad, or an iPod Touch, you may want to pay attention to this. A lawsuit that was filed in U.S. District Court in California says that certain app makers have been sending private information t0 to third-party advertising networks:
The suits said personal information at risk included users’ ages, gender and location along with a unique device identifying number, or UDID, that Apple assigns to all iPhones and iPads. The complaint mirrors the findings of an investigation published this month by the Wall Street Journal that found many of the most popular apps distributed such data to third-party advertising networks without consumers’ knowledge or consent – and at times in violation of Apple’s privacy policy.
“Consumers are engaged in a marketplace, but it’s not a fully informed market,” said Dave Stampley, a lawyer with KamberLaw. “They’re paying with their information and not realizing that.”
Besides Apple, the creators of Backflip, Dictionary.com, Pandora and the Weather Channel have been named in the lawsuits. It’s a safe bet that a lot of other app makers might be doing the same thing. This is one lawsuit that I’ll be watching as users of smartphones really need to be protected from nonsense like this. It would be nice if we could trust the app makers and the smartphone companies. But if they can’t or won’t do the right thing, then governments need to step in. But that doesn’t seem to be the case:
Washington policymakers have struggled to keep pace with the overflowing stream of information transmitted online, and mobile devices such as the iPhone represent the latest frontier. A Senate subcommittee held a hearing on the issue over the summer, and Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) has sought privacy legislation for consumers. Then, in a report this month, the Federal Trade Commission criticized the industry as “too slow” in establishing privacy standards and said it has “failed to provide adequate and meaningful protection.”
The agency also found that consumers are shouldering too much of the burden in protecting themselves, particularly when privacy disclosures, if they exist, can be difficult to find and understand. It suggested allowing consumers to choose how much of their personal information to share by creating a do-not-track system similar to its popular do-not-call list.
Meanwhile, the Commerce Department issued guidelines for balancing consumer privacy with mobile innovation. The report called for a “Privacy Bill of Rights” for consumers and codes of conduct for businesses – and consequences for violating them.
So since government won’t protect consumers, it’s up to consumers to sue. Not the best thing in the world. But if it gets the desired result, then it’s not a bad thing.
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This entry was posted on December 29, 2010 at 9:57 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple, Lawsuit. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Privacy Lawsuits Hit Apple And App Makers
If you use an iPhone, iPad, or an iPod Touch, you may want to pay attention to this. A lawsuit that was filed in U.S. District Court in California says that certain app makers have been sending private information t0 to third-party advertising networks:
The suits said personal information at risk included users’ ages, gender and location along with a unique device identifying number, or UDID, that Apple assigns to all iPhones and iPads. The complaint mirrors the findings of an investigation published this month by the Wall Street Journal that found many of the most popular apps distributed such data to third-party advertising networks without consumers’ knowledge or consent – and at times in violation of Apple’s privacy policy.
“Consumers are engaged in a marketplace, but it’s not a fully informed market,” said Dave Stampley, a lawyer with KamberLaw. “They’re paying with their information and not realizing that.”
Besides Apple, the creators of Backflip, Dictionary.com, Pandora and the Weather Channel have been named in the lawsuits. It’s a safe bet that a lot of other app makers might be doing the same thing. This is one lawsuit that I’ll be watching as users of smartphones really need to be protected from nonsense like this. It would be nice if we could trust the app makers and the smartphone companies. But if they can’t or won’t do the right thing, then governments need to step in. But that doesn’t seem to be the case:
Washington policymakers have struggled to keep pace with the overflowing stream of information transmitted online, and mobile devices such as the iPhone represent the latest frontier. A Senate subcommittee held a hearing on the issue over the summer, and Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) has sought privacy legislation for consumers. Then, in a report this month, the Federal Trade Commission criticized the industry as “too slow” in establishing privacy standards and said it has “failed to provide adequate and meaningful protection.”
The agency also found that consumers are shouldering too much of the burden in protecting themselves, particularly when privacy disclosures, if they exist, can be difficult to find and understand. It suggested allowing consumers to choose how much of their personal information to share by creating a do-not-track system similar to its popular do-not-call list.
Meanwhile, the Commerce Department issued guidelines for balancing consumer privacy with mobile innovation. The report called for a “Privacy Bill of Rights” for consumers and codes of conduct for businesses – and consequences for violating them.
So since government won’t protect consumers, it’s up to consumers to sue. Not the best thing in the world. But if it gets the desired result, then it’s not a bad thing.
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This entry was posted on December 29, 2010 at 9:57 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple, Lawsuit. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.