Top Six Tech Companies "Agree To Privacy Warning"

The world's top six technology companies, including Apple, Google and Microsoft have apparently agreed to tighten up on privacy warnings when customers download apps. It comes after it was disclosed that many popular apps, including Twitter, don't fully explain that they, for example, upload users' contact lists.

The move comes amid increasing criticism over "data grabs" by a number of third-party applications which don't offer clear disclosure about how much of a user's personal data such as their address book they will store on their servers.

Google also came under renewed scrutiny over its announcement earlier in February that it would streamline its privacy policy, and still faces separate scrutiny from the US Congress over its circumvention of security settings in browsers to track millions of users of its services on Apple's iPhone and iPad, and users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser.

The new agreement binds Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion (RIM), and Hewlett-Packard – and developers on their platforms – to disclose how they use private data before an app may be downloaded, Attorney General Kamala Harris said.

"Your personal privacy should not be the cost of using mobile apps, but all too often it is," Harris said.

She said that 22 of the 30 most downloaded apps do not have privacy notices. Some downloaded apps also upload some or all of a consumer's contact book to online servers – including small companies such as the would-be social network Path, and the giant microblogging network Twitter.

Of course it relies on people reading the warnings, a bit like the usual pages and pages of terms and conditions. Does anyone read them? Probably not.

(Source: The Guardian)