On Friday we kicked off ACT’s app privacy events with a special Privacy boot camp for kids apps.  In cooperation with Moms with Apps and Silicon Valley Apps for Kids, the event was held at the offices of Creativity, Inc., an innovative company that builds the software that goes into toys. During four intense hours of discussion, workshops, and learning, participants learned the basics of privacy law and how to treat the data their apps collect about customers with the highest respect and safety.

We were honored to have California Deputy Attorney General Alexandra Robert Gordon kick off the event. In her opening remarks, she shared how her office had worked with the major app platform providers (Apple, Microsoft, Google, RIM, and HP) to move toward a privacy infrastructure for each store that would ensure every app has a privacy policy for customers to review.  This historic agreement helps safeguard the private data of consumers while making life easier for app developers. We are thankful for her efforts and we look forward to continuing to work together in crafting policy that benefits all parties involved.

Privacy attorney Christina Gagnier gave an overview of the current lay of the land and shared how the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act applies to mobile apps. This session sparked many questions from the audience about practical issues. It’s clear that App developers care about privacy and want to make sure their apps are both compliant with all applicable laws and meet the expectations of parents.

Jason Beatty of PrivacyChoice walked us through their Privacy Policy Maker to help app developers build a comprehensive and easy to understand privacy policy . This walk through covered all the decisions and options involved in building a privacy policy, including your app’s use of location awareness, analytics, and ad networks. Jason also shared the world premier of a new feature – the ability to automatically create graphical privacy disclosures based on the work of Mom’s With Apps. The feature is fully integrated in the Policy Maker and help parents quickly understand how an app will work.

ACT’s Morgan Reed shared the tremendous opportunities that become available when you build apps that include privacy by design and Mike Sax of Sax.net shared his personal experiences as an app developer and a number of best practices for building apps that take privacy seriously.

Participants walked away with a clear understanding of the law and a set of tools to implement good privacy practices. Now they can go back to focus on what they do best: building awesome apps that engage and delight their customers. Our next app privacy event will be held in Seattle as part of the Privacy, Identity, and Innovation Conference on May 14, 2012.

To be continued.

ACT applauds the Administration’s efforts to address consumer privacy and its inclusion of the mobile apps community in the multi-stakeholder process. We were particularly pleased to note that the words “internet” and “online” do not appear in the proposed enumerated Bill of Rights. We say this not because we think the internet should be exempt, but because there must be a universal approach to privacy. While much attention recently has been focused on internet privacy, we are pleased that the Administration recognizes that privacy standards must apply equally to both the offline and online worlds. The collection and sharing of consumer data is not an internet-only phenomenon. We look forward to continuing our work with the Administration and Congress, as well as our fellow stakeholders, as this process unfolds.