Consumer Federation rep airs list of grievances with mobile
May 8, 2008
Susan Grant is director of consumer protection at the Consumer Federation of America
WASHINGTON -- The Consumer Federation of America's representative aired a long list of concerns she had with mobile marketing, messaging and billing at the Federal Trade Commission's mobile event.
Like her fellow panelists, Susan Grant, director of consumer protection at the Consumer Federation, was primarily worried about the thornier issues that arise as mobile evolves into a marketing and media platform. Take the quantity of information generated by consumer usage of mobile, for example.
"Privacy policies don't explain what will happen with the personal information," Ms. Grant yesterday told an audience of marketing, nonprofit and FTC representatives at the "Beyond Voice: Mapping the Mobile Marketplace" event.
Her list of concerns includes inadequate protections, unauthorized charges, overconsumption and privacy policies.
She was also worried about unwanted marketing, marketing to children and inadequate dispute resolution.
"Protecting [consumers] from spam and spyware should simply be automatic," Ms. Grant said. "Consumers shouldn't be asked to download applications."
Her point was that consumers had to take steps to arm themselves against surreptitious messages and content instead of the wireless carriers blocking the flow of such information at the initial stage of delivery.
Ms. Grant, who is based in Washington, took particular issue with five elements of the mobile ecosystem.
First was location-based targeting. She didn't like the idea of tracking. Her preference was for a do-not-do provision as the default.
Ms. Grant's next concern was over health and financial information, which "shouldn't plain be collected."
Third, she's advocating for a Do Not Track registry on the lines of the Federal Communications Commission's Do Not Call list. That issue is already roiling online marketers.
Then there's her utter discomfort with online gambling migrating to mobile and instant loans offered through SMS text messages. Apparently SMS instant loans are a major scam in Europe.
"They should be banned," Ms. Grant said. "Notice and choice are not going to be a solution."
Finally, there's billing and control. This issue is linked to truthfulness in advertising, marketing to children, overconsumption and dispute resolution.
Ms. Grant admitted that there are offerings out there that address some of the Consumer Federation's concerns with mobile.
"We obviously need to make sure that consumers know these tools are available," she said. "It's up to the service providers in the industry to ensure that."