Senator Schumer asks FTC to probe Apple, Android
(Reuters) - A U.S. senator has urged the Federal Trade Commission to investigate reports that applications on the Apple Inc and Google Inc mobile systems steal private photos and contacts and post them online without consent.
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple had already drawn FTC attention through a 2010 mobile-software probe, while senators in 2011 pressed the company to remove police-evasion apps. Those episodes put app-store governance under a mix of regulatory and congressional pressure.
Schumer’s request shifts the focus to reports of apps accessing and publishing users’ photos or contacts without consent. The underlying reports are unconfirmed, but the request puts Apple, Google and the FTC at the center of the accountability question.
First-order effects
- The FTC faces a formal request to examine the reported privacy practices of applications on Apple and Android systems.
- Apple and Google face immediate congressional scrutiny over how their mobile platforms govern apps’ access to personal photos and contacts.
Second-order effects
- App developers handling contacts or photos face greater pressure from platform operators and regulators to justify data access and obtain meaningful consent.
- Apple and Google may be pushed to make app-review and disclosure practices more visible, shifting privacy compliance costs toward the distribution layer as well as individual developers.
Third-order effects
- If regulators treat app-store operators as responsible gatekeepers for developers’ data practices, mobile distribution could evolve toward stronger platform-level consent controls rather than relying primarily on developer promises.
The trend: Mobile privacy oversight is moving from scrutiny of individual apps toward questions of distribution-layer liability for the platforms that approve and deliver them.