On Friday, April 22, 2022, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which is part of the Department of Commerce, issued a request for comment (RFC) on the state of competition in the mobile app marketplace. According to the RFC, the record developed will be used to inform the Biden Administration’s competition agenda, including a report on competition in the mobile app ecosystem. Comments are due on May 23, 2022.
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FTC Settles Deception, COPPA Charges Against Social Networking App Path
Path, a social networking mobile app, has agreed to enter into a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) regarding charges that the company deceived consumers by collecting contact information from users’ mobile address books without notice and consent. The agreement also resolves charges that the company violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) by collecting personal information from children under 13 years old without parental notice and consent. Path did not admit any liability by entering into the consent decree, which is for settlement purposes only.
The FTC alleged that the Path application included an “Add Friends” feature that allowed users to make new connections within the app. Users were given three options when using the “Add Friends” functionality: “Find friends from your contacts,” “Find Friends from Facebook,” or “Invite friends to join Path by email or SMS.” Regardless of which option was chosen, Path automatically collected and stored contact information from the address book on the user’s mobile phone. The FTC argued that this practice was contrary to representations made in the company’s privacy policy that only certain technical information, such as IP address, browser type, and site activity information, was automatically collected from the user. Under the settlement, Path agreed to implement a comprehensive privacy program and obtain biennial, independent privacy assessments for the next twenty years.
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China and U.S. Make Technology-Related Commitments at 23rd JCCT
Last month, senior officials from the U.S. and China conducted the 23rd U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) in Washington, D.C. The JCCT was founded in 1983 as a forum for high-level dialogue on bilateral trade issues. This year’s JCCT resulted in several technology-related commitments from both China and the U.S.
China’s technology-related commitments included:
- Requiring state-owned enterprises and banks to purchase and use legitimate software.
- Reaffirming that technology transfer and cooperation will not be a precondition for market access, and pledging to revise regulations that specify an indigenous intellectual property requirement for high-level information security products.
- Considering views of all stakeholders with regard to the regulation of information technology, telecommunications hardware, operating systems, applications, and app stores. We previously wrote on China’s proposed regulations regarding smartphone applications here. China also affirmed that it would not mandate any particular encryption standard (such as the ZUC standard) for commercial 4G LTE equipment.
U.S. technology-related commitments reportedly included easing restrictions high-technology and dual-use exports from the U.S. to China. However, acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank clarified that restrictions would not be eased for items on the U.S. munitions list.
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mHealth Moving Forward
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski announced this week that he expects the FCC to release two orders on mobile healthcare technologies (mHealth) by the end of the year. This announcement relates to the release this week of a report by the mHealth Task Force that made a number of recommendations with respect to ways that federal agencies and industry players can advance “mobile health, wireless health, and e‐Care technologies that improve patient care and the efficiency of healthcare delivery.
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Study Profiles Smartphone Users
A recent study conducted by the Online Publishers Association and Frank N. Magid Associates, Inc. studied how consumers were accessing content, such as video and news information, and otherwise spending time on their smartphones. “A Portrait of Today’s Smartphone User” reached the following conclusions:
- There are approximately 107 million smartphone users in the
FTC Publishes Guide For App Developers on Advertising and Privacy Issues
Last week, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) published a short guide for mobile app developers and entrepreneurs with suggestions on how to comply with basic truth-in-advertising and privacy principles. The guide is entitled “Marketing Your Mobile App: Get It Right From the Start” and includes many useful tips.
For advertising, the FTC advises that app…
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