Privacy Groups Promote More Secure Mobile Apps
By
John Pulley
Health-related apps constitute a robust and fast-growing segment of the mobile apps market.
A study by the two groups found that developers of paid and free apps are increasing their implementation of privacy policies, according to a of the findings. Health-related apps constitute a robust and fast-growing segment of the mobile apps market.
The Future of Privacy Forum is a Washington-based think tank focusing on responsible data practices for government and industry. The Center for Democracy and Technology is a Washington-based nonprofit advocacy group working to protect free speech as well as Internet privacy.
The Future of Privacy Forum and the Center for Democracy and Technology this week released a set of best practices that mobile application developers can use to protect users’ privacy.
The best practices document, released July 11, includes a list of seven basic steps for building privacy into mobile apps and detailed explanations for achieving them. They are:
- Practice privacy by design, embedding privacy measures through the entire product life cycle.
- Communicate openly and effectively in a clearly stated, transparent policy describing practices for collecting, sharing and using data.
- Make your privacy policy easily accessible.
- Use enhanced notice, but only in cases where users might not expect data to be collected.
- Provide users with choices and controls regarding collection of private data.
- Secure users’ data.
- Ensure accountability by designating someone responsible for privacy protection.