就在苹果因手机应用出卖用户信息而遭到集体声讨之时，国际移动市场营销联盟（Mobile Marketing Association，简称MMA）开始宣布介入此事，并表示将制定一系列的移动行业隐私政策。

据称这些新条款将与该联盟原来发布的全球执行代码（Global Code of Conduct）共同使用，解决应用卖主、用户日益增长的信息透明需求，让更多人了解手机平台的信息搜集过程。

MMA的全球CEO格雷格·斯图亚特（Greg Stuart）在本月初表示，MMA已经认识到了保护用户隐私的重要性，为方便应用开发商和发行商通过手机渠道，合理合法地与用户进行互动，MMA必须不断更新关于用户个人信息搜集、管理和使用的相关规定。

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据游戏邦了解，MMA还号召移动运营商、应用卖主、代理商、移动广告公司、媒体技术公司等行业相关机构加入MMA的隐私保护委员会（Privacy Committee），共同商讨制定新规的对策。这个问题将通过1月25日至26日在佛罗里达召开的“用户最佳方案解决大会”（Consumer Best Practices Meeting）进行讨论。

与市场规模达到250亿美元的在线广告行业相比，手机市场营销还只是一个青涩的行业，据eMarketer报告显示，这一行业的营收预计2012年才有可能达到10亿美元。斯图亚特还表示，“如果我们早一点看到移动互联网和手机应用的市场潜力，可能我们就会早一点介入此事。”但游戏邦要问的是，如果MMA没看出这一领域的前途，那是不是就可以继续不闻不问？

另外，新的用户隐私政策究竟何时出台，也还没有具体的时间表。对此斯图亚特仅仅表示，最重要的是把这件事情做好，总之MMA已经开始采取行动。

因为《华尔街日报》连篇累牍的报道，应用泄露个人信息的问题开始引起了人们的警惕。《华尔街日报》曾抽样调查了101款iPhone、Android平台的热门智能手机应用，却发现其中56款应用在未经用户许可的情况下，擅自将手机ID传送给第三方公司，还有47款应用对外透露用户所在地，另有5款应用出卖姓名、性别等其他个人详细资料。

但《华尔街日报》的曝料并没有得到公众的一致拥护，相反还遭到了一些科技博客的反对。一位名为Andrew Munchbach的博客主甚至特意发布了一篇文章，标题是“大家好，我的名字是：9649e796e8b23900dc9629a18f2d47306430e62f”（游戏邦注：这一连串字符是他的手机识别码，是创建用户在线资料的独一无二的标识符），声称手机应用追踪用户信息的后果并没有大家想象的那么糟糕。

他表示自己并不关心姓名、性别、手机识别码、所在地等个人信息被第三方公司甚至是广告媒体所获，“所以《愤怒的小鸟》开发商Rovio公司就可以发现，我玩这款游戏时，可足足连续花了6个小时，才从第5关闯到第13关，他们也可以知道我就住在美国罗得岛新港市，也可以通过我的手机通讯录找到其他也在玩这款游戏的联系人，我支持这种功能。”

他甚至认为，就算这些数据被传送给分析公司，那也会以匿名的形式进行数据分析，“Rovio可以通过这些信息来完善自己的产品，对我这种游戏玩家来说这可是件好事。就算Flurry公司进一步挖掘这些数据，并将它们整理成行业分析报告，那也不会对我造成困扰。这些不过是通过手机反映出来的年龄、性别和随时会变动的地址等信息而已。”

当然并不是所有的用户都像Andrew Munchbach这么爽快，他们希望可以像电脑网页浏览器那种有选择性的操作一样，允许用户退出信息追踪系统。《华尔街日报》调查发现，大部分受访者（67.7%）希望手机应用在搜索个人信息时能首先征求一下他们的意见。不过游戏邦认为，其实是《华尔街日报》的消息对公众产生心理影响所得的结果，如果每款应用都像微软Vista的用户帐号安全监控系统一样，每执行一步操作都要求你进行确认，这种情况更容易引起手机用户反感。

另外要说明的是，在目前的移动领域中还没有自由选择退出信息追踪的说法，要不然就是只能“被追踪”，要不然就别使用这款应用。也许MMA施加的影响可以让这种情况得到改观，让手机用户得到更好的产品体验，同时也改善移动广告、短信、应用内置横幅广告、手机浏览器广告等服务的生存环境。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

Mobile Marketing Association to Address Smartphone Privacy Issue

As Apple faces a class action lawsuit where it’s being accused of sharing users’ personal information with advertising networks without their consent, the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) is now stepping in with plans to develop a set of mobile privacy guidelines for the industry.

The new guidelines will complement the group’s existing Global Code of Conduct, and will attempt to address the growing need for marketers and consumers to have a “transparent, accepted understanding,” in its words, as to how information on a mobile device is collected and what’s being done with it.

MMA to Create Mobile Privacy Guidelines

Greg Stuart, Global CEO of the MMA, said the group recognizes the importance of consumer privacy. “In order for marketers and publishers to responsibly and sustainably engage consumers through and with the mobile channel, we need to continuously update how we address the collection, management and use of personal data or related consumer information,” he explained earlier this month.

To create the new guidelines, the MMA is asking members of the mobile community, including carriers, marketers, agencies, media companies and media technologies, to join its Privacy Committee.

The issue will also be addressed at its upcoming Consumer Best Practices Meeting, January 25-26 in Boca Raton, Florida.

Compared with the $25 billion online ad industry, the mobile marketing industry is still in its infancy. It won’t reach $1 billion until 2012, reported AdWeek, citing data from eMarketer. “If we’d seen how fast mobile Internet and apps were going to grow, maybe we would have stepped in sooner,” Stuart told AdWeek.

[Author's Note: if they had seen how fast it would grow? Were they not watching?]

There’s no timeline for the completion of the new policy, Stuart said. “It’s more important that we get it done right. This release was a call to arms.”

A Need to Address Mobile Privacy Concerns

This issue was recently in the forefront of people’s minds, thanks to a Wall St. Journal series called “What They Know,” that highlighted the growing lack of privacy in today’s digital world.

The Journal found that, after an examination of 101 popular smartphone applications on iPhone and Android devices, 56 transmitted the phone’s unique device ID to other companies without the user’s awareness or consent. 47 also transmitted location and 5 sent age, gender and other personal details.

Counterpoint: Tracking is GOOD

The somewhat overly paranoid reporting from The WSJ was met with some backlash online, especially from the tech blogging community. In a post entitled “Hello, My Name is:9649e796e8b23900dc9629a18f2d47306430e62f,” BGR blogger Andrew Munchbach made a convincing argument that mobile tracking isn’t really all that bad. (The headline referred to his UDID, the unique device identifier that’s used to build an online profile of a device, and therefore, the user).

“I’m not all that concerned with third parties, even advertisers, knowing the age, gender, UDID, and/or the general (or even specific) location of my device’s end-user (that’s me),” Munchbach wrote. “So Rovio, the maker of Angry Birds, knows that the dude using my mobile device is, um, a dude, was stuck on level 5-13 for six straight hours, and was in Newport, RI when this all occurred. So the game looked through my address book to see if there were contacts that were also playing Angry Birds with whom I could connect. I kind of like these features,” he said.

He also said that even when that data is passed to an analytics company, it’s used – anonymously – to provide useful usage statistics and intelligence. “Rovio can use this information to improve its product, which would seem like a benefit to me, the player. Heck, Flurry may even go one step further and use this information in its own reporting and assessment of the mobile industry or publish a report about it…still doesn’t trouble me all that much. Why should it? It’s an age, gender, and ever-changing location that is linked to a number that represents a mobile device.”

…But Some Want to Opt-Out & Today You Can’t

While in Munchbach’s case, the tracking is seen in a positive light, there are some who would prefer the option to opt-out, as you can in most of today’s modern desktop-based Web browsers, through the use of built-in tools like privacy/”incognito” modes, browser add-ons and extensions and even alternative search portals that promise no tracking.

WSJ polled its readers on the matter, and a majority (67.7%), said they want apps to tell them every time they collect and send info about their mobile device. Clearly, these voters were worked about about the idea, having just read the article. Apps that constantly nagged you if and when they could share information would be worse than Windows Vista’s User Account Control security feature which seemed to ask you every single time you tried to make the simplest change on your PC.

Still, the mobile world, as of yet, does not have any such opt-out options. It’s all or nothing – use the app, or don’t. But if you do, you’re agreeing to certain conditions. The MMA’s influence may help to create new scenarios here that will better serve mobile users, not just with regard to apps, but for all sorts of mobile ads, including SMS text messages, in-app banner advertising and ads on the mobile Web itself.（source:readwriteweb）