Calif A.G. Says Delta App Violates Privacy Law
California Attorney General Kamala Harris has sued Delta Air Lines for failing to include a privacy policy in its mobile app.
The complaint, filed on Thursday in San Francisco Superior Court, charges Delta with violating the 2003 California Online Privacy Protection Act. That law requires Web site operators that collect personally identifiable information from state residents to conspicuously display links to privacy policies.
"Although the Fly Delta app collects California consumers' PII, there is no privacy policy available to consumers within the app itself," the lawsuit alleges. The complaint adds that the app has been downloaded "millions" of times since October of 2010.
Harris is seeking an injunction banning Delta from continuing to offer the app until it adds a privacy policy and fines of up to $2,500 per download.
Delta's Web site has a privacy policy, but that document allegedly doesn't outline everything collected by the Fly Delta app -- including geolocation data and photos -- the complaint alleges.
The suit comes six weeks after Kamala notified 100 companies, including Delta, that they risked an enforcement action if they failed to include privacy policies to their apps. Other companies she reportedly warned include OpenTable and United Airlines.
The lawsuit is the latest in a series of privacy-related actions Harris has taken. Earlier this year, she convinced six companies with app marketplaces -- Google, Apple, Research in
Motion, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and Amazon -- to say they will require that apps available on their platforms have privacy policies. Several months later, Facebook agreed to do the same.
This summer, Harris created a new unit within the office, the Privacy Enforcement and Protection Unit, in order to enforce a variety of privacy-related laws, including regulations about data
collection, financial records and identity theft.
Recent Online Media Daily Articles
-
Network Advertising Initiative Proposes New Mobile Privacy Rules May 22, 9:03 p.m.
Moving forward with its plan to issue mobile privacy rules, the self-regulatory group Network Advertising Initiative ... -
Entertainment, Travel Bet On Mobile Banners May 22, 4:16 p.m.
Banner ads have long been the whipping boy of online advertising, and the same is now ... -
Marketers Should Tailor Specific Pitches To Tablet, Smartphone May 22, 2:51 p.m.
Don’t lump tablets in with mobile. That’s the takeaway of a new Forrester study looking at ... -
Good TV Content Trumps On, Whether Trad TV Or Streaming May 22, 2:42 p.m.
While consumers continue to perceive TV programming as superior in quality to that of online fare, ... -
Google Releases Self-Serve Display Benchmark Tool May 22, 2:02 p.m.
Understanding how a brand's online campaign competes with competitors requires trending benchmark data like engagement rates ... -
Twitter Brings Lead Generation To Tweets May 22, 1:14 p.m.
Twitter began testing a lead generation tool Wednesday in its tweet stream that resembles a cross ... -
DigitasLBi, Razorfish Tap Execs For Global Ops May 22, 11:26 a.m.
Publicis Groupe digital agencies DigitasLBi and Razorfish have installed new executives to run their respective international ... -
More Consumers Turn To Mobile To Research, Book Travel May 22, 8:53 a.m.
More than half of consumers used a mobile device to book travel in the last 90 ... -
Showrooming Overhyped, Mobile Key To Shopping Purchases May 22, 8:53 a.m.
Given consumers' mobile in-store shopping trends, some consider the showrooming hoopla overblown. The research process still ... -
Shopping App Swirl Adds In-Store Capability May 22, 8:53 a.m.
Swirl entered the mobile shopping fray last year with an iPhone app allowing users to learn ...
Be the first to comment on "Calif A.G. Says Delta App Violates Privacy Law"
Leave a Comment