Even the slickest mobile app can get caught in a privacy debacle. The blogosphere erupted in outrage in February after a blogger discovered San Francisco photo-sharing app Path was downloading users’ phone contacts without permission. Soon after, another local app company, Hipster, admitted it had done the same. Both companies issued embarrassing public apologies and vowed to change their ways.
Then late last month, app developer RockYou Inc., agreed to pay $250,000 to settle allegations that it had collected personal information from children, even though its privacy policy stated otherwise.
