Mobile-App Makers Face US Privacy Investigation

Apparently, federal prosecutors in New Jersey are investigating whether numerous smartphone applications illegally obtained or transmitted information about their users without proper disclosures.

The criminal investigation is examining whether the app makers fully described to users the types of data they collected and why they needed the information -- such as a user's location or a unique identifier for the phone. Collecting information about a user without proper notice or authorization could violate a federal computer-fraud law. Online music service Pandora Media said April 4 it received a subpoena related to a federal grand-jury investigation of information-sharing practices by smartphone applications. Pandora disclosed the subpoena, issued "in early 2011," in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The Oakland, Calif., company said it had been informed it is "not a specific target of the investigation." Pandora said it believed similar subpoenas had been issued "on an industry-wide basis to the publishers of numerous other smartphone applications."