The Federal Trade Commission has announced its intention to “carefully monitor” the booming business of mobile marketing in an attempt to eradicate or at least reduce misleading or inequitable content offers. The FTC has issued a warning to mobile content providers that they must “fully disclose costs incurred when consumers download or click on mobile applications.”
Addressing the FTC’s “Beyond Voice: Mapping the Mobile Marketplace” event, FTC commissioner Jonathan Leibowitz expressed concern with mobile messaging, games and video services marketed to the under-eighteen crowd. “Kids are usually more facile and fearless with technology than their parents–quick to click first and ask questions later,” Leibowitz said. “A mobile phone that gives them easy access to content and purchasing power makes them easy prey for aggressive marketers…We believe in self-regulation, but we are going to police the wireless space.”
Prior to the event, the Center for Digital Democracy and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group announced revisions to their 2006 complaint on interactive marketing techniques and consumer privacy worries to incorporate mobile marketing. The Center for Digital Democracy Chester implored the FTC to “assume a leadership role to guarantee consumer interests are reflected in mobile marketing applications and data collection techniques.”
