[EL] ELB News and Commentary 7/31/12

[Joseph Lorenzo Hall]

Rick may understate the exposure voters may face by installing
campaign-oriented mobile applications.

The case is much worse for mobile applications than the text-message case
you describe, Rick. With a text message, all they have is your phone
number.* With a mobile application, depending on a few things (like
operating system), they likely have access to your contacts directory,
location while running and other kinds of information that is likely
sensitive from a privacy perspective. I'd pay particular attention to the
claims the app makes in its' privacy policy, if it has one.

Anyway, this is just to say that installing a candidate's mobile
application could potentially deliver a great deal of personal information
to the campaign without your knowing it.

I'd recommend staying very far away without explicit (FTC-enforceable)
representations from the campaign as to how they'll use your information,
for what purposes, etc.

best, Joe

* Granted, there are services like RapLeaf that can, for a fee, use a
mobile phone number to fill out a more comprehensive profile about an
individual, but that can be very unreliable data.

On Tue, Jul 31, 2012 at 11:32 AM, Rick Hasen <rhasen at law.uci.edu> wrote:

> Be Careful If You Sign Up for Romney Mobile App<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=37788>
> Posted on July 31, 2012 8:21 am <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=37788> by Rick
> Hasen <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
>
> CNN reports<http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/07/31/campaigns-debut-mobile-apps/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_politicalticker+%28Blog%3A+Political+Ticker%29>that if you want to be among the first to find out about Mitt Romney’s Vice
> Presidential pick, you should sign up for his mobile app.
>
> I signed up for the Obama text message to find out about his v.p. choice
> in 2008.  I’ve never sent a text again, given any information besides my
> phone number, or sent the campaign (or any presidential campaign) a penny
> in contributions.  But I have received dozens and dozens of text messages
> from the Obama campaign over the last few years.  Just yesterday, I
> received a text from Michelle Obama asking me to sign the President’s
> birthday card (and, I assume, make a donation at the same time.)  I have
> not unsubscribed because I am interested in watching if, and how, my cell
> phone number will be sold to other campaigns.
>
> So signing up to be among the first to find out Romney’s v.p. choice may
> hardly be free.
>  [image: Share]<http://www.addtoany.com/share_save#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D37788&title=Be%20Careful%20If%20You%20Sign%20Up%20for%20Romney%20Mobile%20App&description=>
>   Posted in campaigns <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59> | Comments Off
>



-- 
Joseph Lorenzo Hall
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Media, Culture and Communication
New York University
https://josephhall.org/
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