Federal Trade Commission

What's the Deal? an Ftc Study on Mobile Shopping Apps Federal Trade Commission

Publisher Marketing: Through a variety of new mobile applications ("apps"), technology is rapidly changing the way consumers shop. Today's mobile apps offer new beneficial services designed to enhance the consumer shopping experience. These apps allow smartphone users to compare competing products and retailers in real-time, seek out the best deals, and pay for their purchases by waving their phones at the checkout counter. Many of these apps have been installed on millions of devices, and all use mobile technology to alter consumers' shopping. To better understand the consumer protection implications of these emerging products and services, Federal Trade Commission staff studied some of the most popular apps that allow consumers to compare prices across retailers, collect and redeem deals, or pay for purchases while shopping in brick-and-mortar stores. Staff sought to learn more about how these apps and services operate, primarily by examining information that is available to consumers before they download the software onto their mobile devices. Staff looked for pre-download information describing how those apps that enable consumers to make purchases dealt with fraudulent or unauthorized transactions, billing errors, or other payment-related disputes. In addition, because shopping apps can allow multiple parties to gather and consolidate personal and purchase data, staff looked for information explaining how the apps handled consumer data. Based on its review, staff found that the apps studied often failed to provide pre-download information on issues that are important to consumers. Prior to download, few of the in-store purchase apps provided any information explaining consumers' liability or describing the app's process for handling payment-related disputes. Additionally, although nearly all of the apps made strong security promises and linked to privacy policies, most privacy policies used vague language that reserved broad rights to collect, use, and share consumer data, making it difficult for readers to understand how the apps actually used consumer data or to compare the apps' data practices. In light of these findings, staff makes the following recommendations to companies that provide mobile shopping apps to consumers: