• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, June 26, 2014

The self-regulatory group Digital Advertising Alliance said on Thursday that it has developed an app that enables consumers to opt out of behavioral advertising on smartphones and tablets.

The app marks the DAA's latest step to implement its mobile privacy code, which sets out rules for collecting data and serving ads on mobile devices. The umbrella group requires ad networks and other companies to notify consumers about online behavioral advertising -- called cross-app advertising in the mobile environment -- and allow people to opt out.

When the self-regulatory organization unveiled its mobile code last year, officials said they expected to release a downloadable app in the future. The app itself won't be available until later this year.

Privacy compliance companies Truste and Ghostery also offer apps that allow mobile users to opt out of behaviorally targeted mobile ads.

As with the DAA-endorsed tool for desktop opt-outs, the new DAA app gives users the ability to opt out of receiving all behaviorally targeted ads, or picking and choosing which ad networks (and other third parties) to avoid.

But it's not clear whether people will turn to apps to opt out of behavioral targeting, when the largest mobile operating systems come with built-in controls that enable people to eschew cross-app targeting.

Apple, for instance, offers a “limit ad tracking” setting, which conveys to ad networks that users don't want to be tracked. Apple requires developers to agree that they honor that setting -- meaning that they don't serve ads to users based on their activity across a variety of apps. Google also offers a comparable feature for Android devices.

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