• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, September 3, 2015

The industry group Direct Marketing Association is urging its members to inform on privacy scofflaws who flout the industry's new self-regulatory mobile code.

"With our enforcement being complaint-based, many of the best tips on non-compliance have come from within our industry," DMA general counsel Senny Boone writes in a recent blog post. "As your team works to come into compliance with the new guidelines, we encourage you to watch the ads you are presented on your phone or tablet to ensure they are compliant as well."

Boone's message comes as the Better Business Bureau's online accountability program is set to begin enforcing an industry-wide mobile privacy code that requires ad companies to allow people to opt out of receiving ads that are targeted based on data collected across mobile apps and sites.

That mobile privacy code, unveiled in 2013, requires ad networks and other companies to notify mobile users about ads that are targeted based on data about their mobile activity.

Earlier this year the DAA released its own mobile opt-out app, App Choices, available for free from Google Play, the Apple App Store and the Amazon Store. The DAA also unveiled an opt-out site for the mobile Web.

The mobile rules largely mirror the industry's longstanding privacy code for behavioral targeting on desktops. But the mobile privacy code also includes some requirements geared for smartphones and tablets. Among others, the DAA says that ad networks, app developers and other players in the mobile ecosystem must obtain consumers' opt-in consent before collecting geolocation information and address-book data.

The BBB's online accountability program enforced the desktop privacy rules for four years. In that time, the group has public named more than a dozen companies -- including publishers like BuzzFeed and Yelp, ad tech companies like Turn and Blue Cava, and marketers like Volkswagen and Scottrade -- that revised their practices or privacy policies after receiving inquiries.

Despite the public enforcement actions, the vast majority of complaints (85%) received by the Direct Marketing Association between July 2013 and December 2014 were resolved in the initial stages, according to Boone.