This week, ACT kicks off a series of coast privacy education events for app developers. We will feature at a number of privacy conferences and host boot camps to help app makers identify best practices to meet consumers’ privacy expectations.

On Wednesday, ACT chairman and iOS developer, Mike Sax, will speak in Palo Alto at the App Developer Summit on location privacy. The same day in Los Angeles, I will appear at the Digital Kids Conference alongside California Special Assistant Attorney General for Technology, Travis LeBlanc, and FTC Consumer Protection Bureau Counsel, Kenneth Abbe. Having testified before Congress five times over the past year on privacy while engaging the White House and FTC on this issue, ACT is uniquely qualified to inform the app developer community about the government’s intention to regulate this space.

As an association created by app developers for app developers, we travel around the country to share what we have learned about the federal government’s plans to regulate our industry. Importantly, we offer a plan of action in response. Overwhelmingly, app developers want to do the right thing on user privacy, and they are undertaking efforts to improve transparency and inform users about the use of their data. At our privacy boot camp events in Silicon Valley and Seattle, we will work directly with developers to create privacy policies, implement privacy by design, and provide guidance on existing regulations.

We are also bringing app developers from across the country to Washington, DC for over one hundred Congressional meetings to caution lawmakers about the negative impact that hasty regulatory action could have in the app industry. This marketplace is less than four years old and we are still discovering new business models. Attempts to restrict app makers would likely involve unintended consequences that could disrupt the growth of the app ecosystem, one of the fastest growing segments of our economy.

ACT will feature at the following events and will conduct its Washington, DC developer Fly-In May 6-8.

April 25: Digital Kids Conference (Los Angeles)
April 25: Application Developers Summit (Palo Alto)
April 27: Silicon Valley Apps for Kids: Hands On Privacy Workshop (Silicon Valley)
May 15-16: Privacy Identity Innovation Conference (Seattle)