First California Lawsuit Over Mobile Privacy Issue Crashes

Scott Vernick was quoted in the Computer World article "First California Lawsuit Over Mobile Privacy Issue Crashes." While the full text can be found in the May 14, 2013, issue of Computer World, a synopsis is noted below.

In a brief ruling last week, a California state court dismissed a closely watched lawsuit charging Delta Air Lines with failure to comply with state privacy laws for mobile applications. The lawsuit, filed by California Attorney General Kamala Harris, alleged that Delta had violated the California Online Privacy Protection Act (CalOPPA) by failing to properly disclose the data collection and use policies associated with its Fly Delta smartphone app.

In the complaint, Harris noted that Fly Delta lacks a privacy policy while the app collects an extensive amount of personal information, including the user's full name, telephone number, email address and geo location data.