Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, HP & RIM Sign New Privacy Policy Standards Agreement

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We have recently learned that various iOS applications have the ability of accessing all sorts of private data on the iPhone including location, contacts, identity, messages and photos, and even upload some of that data to remote servers in order for the apps in questions to provide some better functionality. Specifically, the address book on the iPhone have been, and continue to be, uploaded to developers’ servers, without the users being clearly notified and agreeing on such actions in order for certain social networking applications to offer better networking features.

That sparked plenty of controversy and a formal investigation from the U.S. Congress, but while we’re yet to hear Apple’s responses to the questions asked by Congress, we can tell you that the company, joined by Google, Microsoft, Amazon, RIM and HP have all agreed on new privacy policy standards for mobile applications to help protect the privacy of mobile app users. Apple confirmed that it will prevent apps from accessing sensitive data in the future without explicit consent from the user, but it’s definitely good to hear that other companies are also ready to implement similar measures. The document has been signed in California and it’s certainly a step in the right direction:

Attorney General Harris forged the agreement with six companies whose platforms comprise the majority of the mobile apps market: Amazon, Apple, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and Research In Motion. These platforms have agreed to privacy principles designed to bring the industry in line with a California law requiring mobile apps that collect personal information to have a privacy policy. The majority of mobile apps sold today do not contain a privacy policy.

What does that means for developers that collect data? They will have to have a clear privacy policy that users can access prior to purchasing the app, rather then after, which probably means that such privacy policies will be available in the app stores selling those apps henceforward. Developers that do not comply with the new request “can be prosecuted under California’s Unfair Competition Law and/or False Advertising Law.”

According to the press release, only about 5 percent of all mobile apps have a privacy policy right now, and that’s out of the “nearly 600,000 applications for sale in the Apple App Store,” “another 400,000 for sale in Google’s Android Market” and all the other mobile apps available in other stores. Clearly, Apple and Google are leading the mobile app environment here, with their apps being downloaded more than 35 billion times to date, with Apple having a huge share of that number, as the App Store is approaching 25 billion app downloads.

We’ll certainly keep tabs on the evolution of mobile apps privacy policies, especially since the privacy policy topic is very hot nowadays, with Google being on track for making some huge privacy policy changes of its own across its online services. But that’s a different story!