Where to Get a Mobile Privacy Agreement

The NY Times reports on the challenge of incorporating a useful privacy agreement for mobile users (read the article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/business/media/industry-tinkers-to-create-privacy-tools-for-mobile-devices.html). They mention a company called Privacy Choice (http://www.privacychoice.org/) that’s giving away free privacy policies for now (it looks like in the future they’ll be trying to bill $39.95 a year for them with free annual updates). Or you could snag a top notch privacy policy from us at WhichDraft.com.

The article quotes the head of Privacy Choice saying:

Using the data collected from hundreds of online privacy policies, Mr. Brock and his team devised a tool to help mobile application developers create basic policies without the help of a lawyer. Developers who want to use the tool can select answers to basic questions about how they collect data, how that data is used and whether it can be deleted.

The resulting policy boils complicated policy language down to a few sentences like “We collect or share your location only with your permission” or “We keep personal data until you delete it.”

“If you have 10 minutes, you can get on the right side of privacy rules,” said Mr. Brock, who estimates that the vast majority of applications that mobile phone users download don’t have privacy policies at all.

These kinds of comments, such as “get on the right side of privacy rules” and suggesting that users will have a privacy policy appropriate to their individual needs, run dangerously close to unauthorized practice of law. Interestingly, there is no information on the Privacy Choice website regarding the background of their people, a disclaimer, or a terms of use, which makes their position even more precarious.

I think the main problem with a site like Privacy Choice is that mobile developers have so little control or awareness about what’s happening with their users’ personal data that a tool like this could lead them down the wrong path. Many of these mobile apps integrate with third party advertising networks who are the ones really in control of the user data. As a result, it’s quite easy to make certain promises in your own privacy policy and immediately breach them the second you integrate an advertising network into your application. Frankly, developers left in this kind of a situation would be better off without any privacy policy at all rather than actively violating their own internal privacy agreement.

You Should Try WhichDraft.com Here.