There are more than 45,000 health apps – is data privacy being overlooked?

Spurred by the growth in wearables and health & well being apps, mHealth is growing fast, not just as a way to track personal fitness but as a way for medical professionals to improve patient care and remotely identify the signs of serious illness for example.  In the US it is estimated that wearables could drop hospital costs by 16 per cent over the five years, and remote patient monitoring technologies could save our healthcare system $200 billion over the next 25 years. What remains consistent is the need to generate and store vast amounts of patient data yet by its definition, …

Global Mobile News Round-up – Week 11th May

Verizon buys AOL for $4.4bn, Apple Pay in China, mobile ad spend to reach $105bn and more... Each week the MEF team curates mobile stories from around the world. Essential news you may have missed, the latest market insight & data nuggets, the Global Mobile News Round-up offers an instant international mobile content and commerce snapshot.  Global News Stories Verizon to buy AOL for $4.4bn BBC US telecommunications giant Verizon has agreed to buy AOL in a deal worth $4.4bn (£2.8bn). Buying AOL will broaden the amount of advertising Verizon can sell and will increase …

Meffys Winner Spotlight – NQ Mobile

With the Meffys 2014 open for entries, (just 10 days left to enter!) we are taking a look at some of last year's winners to find out what they've been up to since they celebrated their success in the international mobile content & commerce awards. This week, we catch up with NQ Mobile - winner of the Consumer Trust Award, which recognises the efforts of companies creating a more trusted environment and experience on mobile for consumers. Gavin Kim, President, International & Chief Commercial Officer shares what's been happening for NQ since last year's Meffys in San Francisco. What …

Industry Views: The Blackphone – the phone for the privacy conscious consumer in a data driven world?

Last week the newest addition to the smartphone market, the Blackphone started shipping to security conscious consumers -  the initial stock was quickly sold out. The phone trades on its advanced security features, with a customised Android operating system and a suite of privacy-optimised software including encrypted VoIP; 'Silent Text', for secure messaging; and 'Silent Contacts', for an encrypted contact list that other apps can't access. Here we've asked for views from MEF members and the wider mobile industry on the smartphone market's latest entrant and why mobile privacy is such a …

Now Apple’s shifted its focus to privacy and security, maybe the industry will follow

As the biggest company in the world offers a timely reminder of the importance of building consumer Trust, MEF''s Senior Advisor for Policy & Initiatives Simon Bates reflects on the upcoming Annual Summit to be held in Washington DC with co-hosts Dentons on the 10th June, and why consumer trust and privacy remain business critical issues. MEF Consumer Trust Summit 2014 Speakers Tim Spirapani VP of Law, Policy, Government Relations Application Developers Alliance Larry Magid Tech journalist, internet safety activist CBS News Debbie Matties,  Vice …

Global Mobile News Round-up – Week 26th May 2014

Each week the MEF team curates mobile stories from around the world. Essential news, the latest market insight & data nuggets, the Global News Round-up offers an instant international mobile content and commerce snapshot.  Global News Stories Facebook Seeks EU Antitrust Review of WhatsApp Deal WSJ Facebook  has asked European Union antitrust regulators to examine its $19 billion deal to buy messaging service WhatsApp, in an attempt to avoid antitrust reviews by multiple EU countries, people familiar with the matter said. The move was unexpected because the deal had been approved …

5 minutes with… Evidon

In our 5 minutes with profiles, MEF members talk about their business, their aspirations for the future and the wider mobile industry. This week Damian Scragg, Managing Director for EMEA, introduces marketing intelligence company Evidon. What does Evidon do? Evidon is a marketing intelligence company that grows businesses by giving them insight into a part of the marketplace they’ve never been able to see before—the value and risk that comes with the widespread deployment of marketing technologies across the web. Powered by Ghostery® data derived from 10 million opt-in “GhostRank” users, …

Standing room only for MEF privacy workshop at AppsWorld Europe

Steve ‘Woz’ Wozniak wasn’t the only draw at last month’s AppsWorld expo in London. More than 60 developers crammed into the Tech World workshop to hear about AppPrivacy – MEF’s free privacy policy generator. MEF Chair Andrew Bud hosted a panel including Martin Fanning, a partner at international law firm Dentons, James Pimentel-Pinto, a founding director of leading UK developer AgencyMobile, and MEF’s Senior Advisor for Policy & Initiatives, Simon Bates, who here summarises the session, which you can watch in full in the video below. MEF has long championed the importance of building …

Australian Government publishes guide to mobile privacy

Simon Bates is MEF’s Senior Advisor for Policy & Initiatives - here he shares his thoughts on a recently published guide to Mobile privacy from the Australian Information Commissioner. Simon and other MEF members are hosting a free privacy workshop on October 23rd at Apps World Europe in London, that will explore best practice for data collection in mobile apps, featuring mobile industry privacy experts and the creators of MEF's online tool - AppPrivacy™. In September, the Australian Information Commissioner published a better practice document for mobile app developers. I know what …

MEF unveils AppPrivacy – the free privacy policy generator for mobile apps

Today MEF launched AppPrivacy™, a free resource for app developers around the world featuring a best practice privacy policy generator, with the goal to build consumer trust. Simon Bates, MEF’s Senior Advisor for Policy & Initiatives, takes us on a tour of its key features, and explores how the online tool is the result of more than a year’s collaboration by MEF's Privacy in Apps Working Group. Why App Privacy? And why now? In previous posts I've stressed the need for app developers to think hard about their use of personal information. Privacy is a hot topic right now in the US, …

NTIA Code for mobile app transparency: an analysis

The NTIA is an agency within the US Dept of Commerce responsible for advising the President on telecoms and IT issues. Last month, it published a Code of Conduct for mobile app developers in an attempt to improve transparency in the collection and use of personal information. MEF’s Senior Adviser for Policy & Initiatives, Simon Bates takes a look at the new Code, and assesses what it will mean for apps and app developers. In June 2012 the NTIA convened a cross section of stakeholders interested in the app economy. This includes privacy, civil liberty and consumer advocates, app developers …

[infographic] More than a quarter of the top 100 free mobile apps don’t have a privacy policy

That's according to the latest MEF research on the relative success of mobile privacy policies which examines when and how a privacy policy was made available, the language used and its word length.Consumer trust also has its own award category at this year’s Meffys, the global awards for mobile content and commerce which will take place in San Francisco on 14th November as part of MEF Global Forum 2013.  The award recognises companies who are paving the way for managing mobile privacy and security in line with regulation and industry developments of best practice. ↓ …

The Honorable Mark Pryor joins MEF members and FTC at 2nd Mobile Privacy Summit in DC

MEF has announced the agenda for its second annual Mobile Privacy Summit, co-hosted with law firm Dentons next month  in Washington DC.  An impressive lineup of speakers has been announced  including Senate Commerce Communications, Technology, and Internet Subcommittee Chairman Mark Pryor. Others include policy-makers from the Federal Trade Commission and National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and also mobile privacy experts from Mozilla, AVG Technologies, Evidon and InMobi. The annual event is part of MEF’s Privacy in Mobile Apps Initiative and will explore different …

A wakeup call for the app economy – mobile consumers want privacy

MEF Global chairman, Andrew Bud talks privacy and consumer trust, and why both will be crucial in sustaining the future app economy. User data has fueled the growth of apps in the mobile economy. Instead of buying digital goods, we are increasingly exchanging them for our personal information, such as our names, email addresses, browsing preferences, location and much more.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with this model but the long term viability of it depends on all parties coming together to ensure transparency across the value-exchange. That’s why MEF has recently launched its …

MEF MWC 2013 Briefing: Consumer Trust in Mobile Applications – Part 2

Here is part 2 of our podcast recorded at this year's Mobile World Congress, featuring the roundtable discussion on mobile privacy. Featuring a panel of industry luminaries from MEF’s Privacy in Mobile Apps Working Group including Brendan Eich of Mozilla, Chris Davies, General Counsel EMEA and Head of Privacy at InMobi and Nick Graham, a Partner at law firm SNR Denton. The session is moderated by Mobile Money Revolution's Tim Green. Listen or download now: MEFTV spoke with Nick Graham and Todd Daubert of Dentons (nee, SNR Denton) after the briefing to find out more about the legal …

MEF MWC 2013 Briefing: Consumer Trust in Mobile Applications – Part 1

After 2012's hugely popular panel on consumer trust, MEF's briefing session for MWC this year was held in Barcelona in association with Kaspersky Lab. Part 1, widgetised for your listening pleasure below, features Denis Maslennikov, Senior Malware Analyst at Kaspersky, explaining the latest mobile malware threats affecting app consumers, and Simon Bates of MEF presenting the findings of the MEF Global Privacy Survey 2013. Listen or download now: MEFTV spoke with Denis just before the briefing, to get the lowdown on his presentation and the kind of threats he would be talking …

MEF Consumer Trust in Mobile Applications Breakfast Briefing with Kaspersky Lab

MEF is again hosting an essential MWC briefing session for 2013, this year with Kaspersky Lab and focusing on the latest threats affecting mobile app consumers, with a special emphasis on the latest developments in mobile malware. The morning session (Wednesday, 27 February 2013 from 08:30 to 10:30) will also include a  roundtable discussion featuring industry experts from MEF’s Privacy in Mobile Apps Working Group including Brendan Eich, CTO Mozilla, Chris Davies, General Counsel EMEA and Head of Privacy at InMobi and Nick Graham, Partner, SNR Denton. Moderated by Tim Green from Mobile Money …

Guest Blog: Privacy Update

The Privacy Blog continues, with news from MEF's Simon Bates on the latest developments in the Privacy in mobile Apps Initiative, and a call for help from MEF members. You will be aware of the excitement around online privacy. Businesses realised a long time ago that the information they collected from people visiting their sites was valuable to advertisers. Few, though, made it clear that this information was being bought and sold. This led to a public outcry which resulted in ‘Do not Track’ legislation in the USA and the ‘Cookies’ Directive in Europe.  Legislators are now turning their …

Guest Blog – MEF Privacy Update

In this new regular feature, Simon Bates of MEF will discuss the issue of mobile privacy and the work currently being undertaken by MEF’s Privacy in Mobile Apps initiative, which is working with MEF members to build a robust and trusted mobile ecosystem for consumers and developers alike.“There's an irresistible market for our data but that doesn't necessarily make us the product – it could make us traders.” David MitchellThere is a lot of talk right now about privacy. The fall-out from the phone hacking scandals in the UK shone a spotlight on the ways tabloid journalists peer into …

Guest Blog – Privacy vs. Data & Building Consumer – Gary Schwartz

The way we define the term privacy is subjective. In the US, we police privacy based on a very broad definition under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act that prohibits “unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce.” The devil is in the policy details. If the news headlines over the past few months are any indication, we are mighty confused with what to call private and what to call public, what to sanction and what not to sanction. How can we start to solve small-screen privacy when we have not solved our digital angst on the desktop? Jules Polonetsky, …