Privacy Policies for Mobile Applications

Privacy is a crucial issue for most of the advertising driven companies we invest in.  Many of our companies have been in the forefront of ensuring that not only do they take the proper care of the data, they also make their policies transparent to interested users.

As mobile apps become increasingly relevant, what happens to consumer data from these devices becomes equally important. A solid, updated privacy policy is crucial to control the risk of mismanaging data, especially considering the recent regulatory developments. While many developers want to do right by their users, there are not a lot of resources out there to help them figure out how.

Now, First Round portfolio company Docracy presents an open-source privacy policy for mobile apps: http://www.docracy.com/mobileprivacy/  As with all the legal documents on Docracy, it’s Github like structure lets developers branch the document (i.e., make a public copy that will maintain a relationship with the original, and publicly show what’s changed) to customize it for their application.

I like Docracy’s initiative because offers a practical solution: three different versions covering the most common types of policies to provide a sensible, fair starting point for app developers. Like a Github of legal documents, Docracy’s founders have 6 years of experience in building mobile apps, and they know how much easier life would be for app creators if public standards could be established.

I’d encourage developers to take a look, and incorporate some form of privacy policy in their mobile applications.  The gatekeepers are starting to enforce standards that will make all that necessary, and Docracy is trying to make it simple.

Comments

[indo western sherwani]

“And when someone apologizes to you enough times for things they'll never stop doing, I think it's FEARLESS to stop believing them. It's FEARLESS to say "you're NOT sorry" and walk away.”

[iOS Development]

i need more authentic information mobile privacy using ios platform

[dildos]

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[Estela]

Eli, I'm so sorry I missed your preesntation! I'm a school librarian and didn't peruse the CLA offerings as closely as I should have, because this is a topic of great interest to me both personally and professionally. In reading your blog a little more I was also interested to see that you recently heard Nicholas Carr speak I read his book this summer and it had a profound effect on me. I love technology as much as the next person, and love to teach kids about it, but there's this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that our society is on a path with potentially disastrous consequences. Privacy is a huge issue, of course, but I'm also just wondering about the risks to deep and sustained thinking in this age of short attention. I'll be interested to explore the links in your preesntation. Thanks for posting it.

[Kendra@smartboxusa]

I think that as you pointed out, there really are not a whole lot of resources available when it comes to ensuring the privacy of users online.

The technology for sharing information has taken off, but technology for blocking access to that information has not moved along at the same rate.

Thus, there are users on the cloud who find that some of their information is not as secure as they would like it to be.