John Gamble
Marketing Manager | TRUSTe
@johnaddison
Image Credit
Back in March we discussed an agreement between the California Attorney General’s Office and major app platform operators that would enforce state law and require developers to have and conspicuously post privacy policies for their mobile apps. Based on the agreement, developers could achieve compliance in three straightforward steps:
- Create a privacy policy for their app
- Add a link to the privacy policy to the app store listing
- Add a link to the privacy policy within the app itself
Fast forward to today and while it appears that some developers have taken the necessary steps to comply, many have not. Earlier this week the California Attorney General’s Office sent warning letters to over 100 mobile developers, giving them 30 days to bring their apps into compliance or face fines of $2,500 per app download by a California citizen. For apps that get hundreds or thousands of downloads per day these fines could add up to a hefty chunk of change that could quickly outpace app sales or mobile advertising revenues.
You can view an example copy of these non-compliance letters here and read more about the announcement in the following publications:
Fortunately, TRUSTe has made it incredibly simply for companies to comply with this law. We’ve developed a proprietary, mobile policy generator that can create hosted privacy policies for our clients that are optimized for viewing on smaller mobile screens. Some of the most popular apps out there today use our platform.
TRUSTe also offers privacy certifications for mobile apps and websites. Many of the most well-known mobile apps and websites on the marketplace are TRUSTe-certified, such as those from The New York Times, NFL, and Dropbox, and Avis.
