The FTC report on shopping apps, which...

The FTC report on shopping apps, which concluded privacy policies are often unclear, is more evidence app developers should institute privacy policies in line with the NTIA-backed mobile privacy code of conduct, said Jules Polonetsky, executive director of Future of Privacy Forum, the industry-backed group favoring self-regulatory privacy guidelines. The FTC report released Friday said many shopping apps make security promises in privacy policies but use vague language to retain an ability to collect, use and share consumer data (CD Aug 4 p14). “It is apparent that many apps should consider adopting the model app privacy nutrition label notice developed by the NTIA multistakeholder group to avoid the vagueness problems identified by the FTC in their study,” said Polonetsky by email. The Application Developers Alliance recently released open source code, based on the NTIA-backed mobile privacy code, that creates such a “nutrition label notice” for apps (CD July 25 p9).