Faced With Privacy Complaint, Mobbles Pulls App

Mobbles pre-emptively took its mobile app for kids temporarily offline learning that a privacy group would be filing a complaint against it with the Federal Trade Commission.

Alex Curtelin, the co-founder and CEO, chalked it up to poor communication about how it communicated its privacy policies. "We don't store any sensitive information," Curtelin told Adweek. "We only use nickname and email of users to operate the app. Articles are implying that we are collecting a bunch of information. We are being careful not to collect information. There is no advertising, so we don't share any data with any commercial entity," he said. Mobbles said the company is open to speaking with the FTC to make sure it is complying with all the rules. "The mobile area is moving fast and it's hard to know exactly what the rules are. We're trying our best to communicate more clearly," Cutelin said. The new Mobbles version with an improved privacy disclaimer will be available on the Android system in the next day or so, but the Apple version could take much longer, Curtelin said.