Mobile Advertising

This is a privacy briefing on the topic of mobile advertising. Below you will find a summary of the issues, privacy goals, and privacy questions. You may also find relevant examples.

Issues

• no industry standards
• no US privacy laws
• data collection viewed as intrusive and aggressive
• users viewed as unaware
• increased risk as cybercriminals shift to mobile platforms

Privacy Goals

• Give power back to users (choice)
• No surprises (transparency)

Privacy Questions

• what kinds of user data is collected?
• how does that data get used and/or shared?
• is notice to data owners sufficient?
• does it do more than users might expect?

Example

An app may collect more information than a user may expect. For example, a caller ID app may:

• identify callers (expected)
• collect user's contact list (unexpected)
• collect user's GPS location (unexpected)
• disclose personal phone numbers without permission (unexpected)
• have the ability to send text and email from user's phone (unexpected)