The Office of the Privacy Commissioner in New Zealand has joined 23 other privacy watchdogs worldwide in pushing for greater privacy protection for smart phone apps.
Photo: AFP
It wants Apple and Google as well as phone manufacturers to tighten up on the ways app producers treat their customers.
Apple and Google operate virtual shops containing large numbers of apps.
Privacy watchdogs have expressed concern that some of these can extract personal information from people who download them onto their phone. This information could be for commercial gain, or it could include private material.
The watchdogs have written an open letter asking Google and Apple to crack down on people using app stores to sell their product and ensure that all information exchanges are notified in advance.
