Will Mobile App Development Slow Due to New Privacy Laws?
The phrase “there’s gold in them thar hills” was coined back in the 1800s, well before the current boom of mobile app development, but both time periods experienced a gold rush of sorts. Miners spent long days and nights working tirelessly with the dream of striking it rich among a sea of others with the same goal in mind, and scores of developers today toil for nearly the same purpose.
One area of mobile app development that has been exceptionally profitable is in the genre of apps designed for kids. From in-app purchases to exposure-exploding social connectivity, today’s children—and their parents—are swamped with choices of apps built specifically for kids, each with the hope of becoming the next Angry Birds or Club Penguin.
But a recent extension to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act has developers begging for more time to comply with the new requirements, which are set to take effect on July 1, 2013. Many believe that the cost and confusion involved in complying could result in a significant slowdown in the development of child-centric apps.
Privacy groups who are pressing the Federal Trade Commission to deny the Application Developers Alliance request for a year's extension claim that developers have been given “plenty of time to comply.” It’s worth noting that the FTC has admitted that further clarification is needed and will be provided “sometime this month”—even though the deadline to comply is only ten weeks away.
If this clarification were received on time, developers would be responsible for an unprecedented amount of responsibility in regards to the privacy of children. Katy Bachman at Adweek points out:
The new rules extend to device IDs, location data, video and photos. Plus, sites and apps are now liable for the practices of third-party vendors, such as ad networks, audience metrics and plug-ins.
An April 10, 2013, conference addressed some ADA members' concerns in hopes of clearing up some of the questions that developers fearful of breaking the law have raised.
Whose side are you on? Do mobile app developers deserve more time to make the necessary changes, and should they also be responsible for the actions of third-party ad networks that fall under the same laws?
