Mobile Apps Under The Microscope

During discussion about the Colors app in the latest episode of This Week In Tech, Denise Howell, who is an intellectual property lawyer, noted that there are few if any privacy laws that apply to mobile apps. The particular feature of Colors being discussed is that it turns on the microphone to identify the event that you are attending, which it uses to aggregate pictures taken by everyone at the event. The issue is that people who install the iPhone app are not made aware that the microphone is being used and many may feel that is a violation of their privacy.