• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, July 16, 2012

The online ad industry is poised to extend privacy self-regulation to the mobile platform, the Interactive Advertising Bureau says in a new filing with the Federal Communications Commission.

The IAB says the upcoming self-regulatory principles for mobile "will provide transparency and consumer control for precise location information, mobile multisite data, and mobile cross-app data, encompassing all parties in the mobile device ecosystem."

The current self-regulatory principles require companies engaged in behavioral advertising to notify users via an icon, and allow them to opt out of receiving targeted ads. But those principles were developed for desktop/laptop computers, where companies can display far more information on a screen than on a smartphone.

The trade group adds that it opposes any new governmental attempt to dictate the types of disclosures mobile companies make to consumers. "Given the complexity of today's mobile devices and mobile Internet operations, companies need flexibility in how they communicate with their customers and must be able to tailor notices for the underlying technology involved and needs of their customers," the IAB says in comments filed late last week and made public on Monday.

The filing was made in response to the FCC's request for public comments about mobile privacy issues. The commission opened a proceeding earlier this year, shortly after news broke that software by mobile analytics company Carrier IQ -- which is installed in around 150 million phones -- was capable of logging users' keystrokes.

"The devices consumers use to access mobile wireless networks have become more sophisticated and powerful, and their expanded capabilities have at times been used by wireless providers to collect information about particular customers’ use of the network -- sometimes, it appears, without informing the customer," the FCC said when it opened the proceeding.