Ever on the forefront of consumer privacy protection, California is again making news in the privacy world with the California Attorney General’s recent publication of “Privacy on the Go: Recommendations for the Mobile Ecosystem,” which includes privacy recommendations for app developers, app platform providers, mobile ad networks, makers of operating systems and mobile carriers.  With this publication, California joins the FTC and the GSMA as entities that have published non-binding guidance with respect to mobile privacy (which we blogged about here and here, respectively).

A month after the Mobile Marketing Association released its Mobile Application Privacy Policy Framework (which we blogged about here), the GSM Association (GSMA) announced the release of its Privacy Design Guidelines for Mobile Application Development. The guidelines seek to provide developers with specific design points meant to enhance mobile application users’ abilities to guard personal information within mobile apps.

Whether your six year old has hijacked your iPad again to rediscover the inexplicable joy of flinging birds with a finger activated slingshot or to harness her mighty math powers in the origami-paved streets of Umi City, children are tapping into the spring of entertainment and educational value offered by the mobile applications marketplace. Yet, according to a study issued last week by the Federal Trade Commission “Mobile Apps for Kids: Current Privacy Disclosures are DisAPPointing”, the lack of privacy disclosures in these apps may hint at deeper laden privacy pitfalls which members of the kids app ecosystem may soon have to remedy.