Apps look to simplify privacy notices

The mobile app industry wants to make privacy policies easier to understand. Mobile security company Lookout launched a tool to help app developers turn lengthy, legal documents into short form privacy policies that users can comprehend.

The privacy toolkit walks developers and their lawyers through a questionnaire to help them shorten and simplify their privacy policies. App users need “a short form privacy policy that is really clear … and understandable,” Lookout’s Associate General Counsel Irene Liu, said. Lookout’s launch follows on the 2013 launch of a government-backed voluntary code of conduct, encouraging app developers to be more transparent about their data practices.