Six top consumer tech companies agree on greater privacy disclosures
23 Feb 2012
Six of the world's top consumer technology firms have agreed on offering greater privacy disclosures before users downloaded applications, so as to protect the personal data of millions of consumers, California's attorney general said yesterday.
According to attorney general, Kamala D Harris, the agreement bound Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Research In Motion, and Hewlett- Packard - and developers on their platforms to disclose how they used private data before an app was downloaded.
She added users' privacy should not be the cost of using mobile apps, as was th case very often. She added 22 of the 30 most downloaded apps did not come with privacy notices.
It is known that some downloaded apps also download a consumer's contact book.
According to Google's statement, under the California agreement, Android users would have ''even more ways to make informed decisions when it comes to their privacy''.
Apple confirmed the agreement without elaborating.