The Center for Digital Democracy, which has
long expressed concerns about the multistakeholder process that produced NTIA's draft of a codeof mobile app conduct Thursday,
abstained from that draft.
CDD was one of the
participants, but also a vocal critic of the role of industry and echoed that
criticism in a blog post
after NTIA released the draft.
"The
stakeholder process is intrinsically flawed," CDD said. "It
principally relies on industry to provide accurate information on the practices
they actually engage in. Industry cannot be expected to challenge their
fundamental-and ever expanding--'data maximization' business model."
CDD Executive director
Jeff Chester could have dissented from the draft, but said he abstained in
deference to the other NGO's (nongovernmental organizations) who participated in
the draft.
"We are
concerned about a number of issues raised by the proposed code related to
actual mobile app and mobile data business models/practices; the lack of
independent user testing; vagueness in definitions and potential loopholes,"
CDD said. "That's why we will soon file at the FTC a report and industry
documents that will help it better evaluate how to structure consumer privacy
safeguards for the mobile app marketplace."
