On Thursday, California's Attorney General Kamala Harris released new guidelines targeted at mobile application developers to ensure consumer awareness of these developer's privacy and data practices. This step is just one of several that have been taken by California's Office of the Attorney General in the last year to bring a renewed focus on web and mobile privacy to protect consumers.
Many developers, startups and application companies are unaware of the California law that requires websites to have a privacy policy. Under Harris' direction, the focus has been on ensuring that mobile applications are also compliant with these requirements, which have been California law since 2004. The report, Privacy on the Go: Recommendations for the Mobile Ecosystem, is available on the Office of the Attorney General's website.
The report comes after enforcement began by the Office of the Attorney General against companies whose mobile applications were non-existent or failed to meet appropriate notice requirements for consumers. This trajectory in California could be influential in creating federal policy around privacy, data and consumer notice.