Privacy in the mobile age? You’re doing it wrong, say EU regulators

A group of data protection officials from across Europe has published its opinion on smartphone apps. It makes for ugly reading, as the fragmentation of the mobile ecosystem renders compliance near-impossible. GigaOM reports.

Everyone knows how finicky the European Union is when it comes to data protection in the cloud, but until now there hasn’t been much noise regarding the humble smartphone app. Now a group of privacy regulators from across Europe has published its opinion on that subject, and the result may be a world of pain for anyone involved in the mobile ecosystem.

The group is called the Article 29 Working Party and, while it doesn’t make laws, it does have a great deal of influence over those who do, and over the way in which privacy laws are interpreted. Its opinion (PDF warning) on mobile apps will be unwelcome in many quarters because it states that just about everyone in the mobile industry — app developers, app store proprietors and even OS and device vendors — has a range of legal obligations around protecting and properly collecting and processing user data.

Read more.

emily | 11:54 PM | Cell Phone Apps Related Articles |
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