Mobile app analytics firm launches privacy initiative

The firm says it wants to take a “white hat” approach, providing consumers with “visibility into collected data and control over how this data is used for targeting and product recommendations”. It plans to introduce new product features, developer requirements and usage guidelines which will be included with its analytics services.

Simon Khalaf, president and CEO of Flurry, said: “Nothing is done without the consumer’s knowledge, or without the chance for a consumer to stop data collection.”

The firm said: “Although the company has over 28,000 companies who have integrated Flurry into more than 40,000 applications across iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and J2ME, Flurry is still a small company with limited resources to devote to an industry-wide initiative. The company hopes that an industry-wide initiative developes and would gladly contribute to and support such an effort.”

Flurry studied the Internet Advertising Bureau’s existing privacy guidelines and the Mobile Marketing Association’s code of conduct when coming up with its policies, as well as taking into consideration the fact that consumers tend to view their mobile devices as more personal than other forms of communication.

The new features and guidelines will be introduced to the iPhone OS this summer, with other platforms following. The firm said the change “should not add complexity to integrating analytics into applications”.