by Nick Mediati, PCWorld  

Editor’s Note: The following article is reprinted from the Security Alert blog at PCWorld.com.

If you've been waiting for government regulators to step in and do something about apps that collect and transmit your data without telling you, I have some good news for you: The State of California is joining forces with a number of major tech companies to strengthen privacy protections in smartphone and tablet apps.

According to a statement released by California Attorney General Kamala Haris, that state will work with Apple, HP, Microsoft, and Google to make sure that any apps sold through their app markets will conform to California state law. That law requires any vendor that sells an app that collects personal data to have a privacy policy outlining the information it collects and what it does with that information.

According to the statement, app markets will have to give you a chance to review an app's privacy policy before you install it onto your smartphone or tablet. That policy must be placed in "a consistent location for an app's privacy policy on the application-download screen" so you'll know where to look. App makers that don't conform to these standards could be prosecuted under California's Unfair Competition Law and/or False Advertising Law.

In the last year or so, a number of app makers have come under fire for collecting or sharing personal information without telling their users. Earlier this month, the Patch social networking app got caught uploading users' address book data without asking for permission. (The company since stopped the practice and apologized.) Last April, the US Government investigated the privacy practices of a number of smartphone app makers, including Pandora.

This agreement is a good first step toward improving mobile app privacy, but there's still more to do. As PC World's Mark Sullivan said recently, we need more legal protections in place to safeguard user data. And I would go one step further: Companies need to write privacy policies that mere mortals—and not just lawyers—can decipher. After all, for most of us, having a privacy policy (or terms of use statement) loaded with jargon is about as good as having no privacy policy at all.

Still, we look forward to seeing what comes from this agreement, and hope that it helps keep companies honest.

[State of California via New York Times and Gizmodo]