SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Six of the world's top consumer technology firms have agreed to provide greater privacy disclosures before users download applications in order to protect the personal data of millions of consumers, California's attorney general said on Wednesday.
The agreement binds Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Research In Motion, and Hewlett-Packard -- and developers on their platforms -- to disclose how they use private data before an app may be downloaded, Attorney General Kamala D. Harris said.
"Your personal privacy should not be the cost of using mobile apps, but all too often it is," said Harris.
Currently 22 of the 30 most downloaded apps do not have privacy notices, said Harris. Some downloaded apps also download a consumer's contact book.
Google said in a statement that under the California agreement, Android users will have "even more ways to make informed decisions when it comes to their privacy".
Apple confirmed the agreement but did not elaborate.
Harris was also among U.S. state lawmakers who on Wednesday signed a letter to Google CEO Larry Page to express "serious concerns" over the web giant's recent decision to consolidate its privacy policy.
The policy change would give Google access to user information across its products, such as GMail and Google Plus, without the proper ability for consumers to opt out, said the 36 U.S. attorneys general in their letter.
EU authorities have asked Google to halt the policy change until regulators can investigate the matter.
CAN AND WILL SUE
California's 2004 Online Privacy Protection Act requires privacy disclosures, but Harris said few mobile developers had paid attention to the law in recent years because of confusion over whether it applied to mobile apps.
"Most mobile apps make no effort to inform users about how personal information is used," Harris said at a press conference in San Francisco. "The consumer should be informed of what they are giving up".
The six companies will meet the attorney general in six months to assess compliance among their developers. But Harris acknowledged "there is no clear timeline" to begin enforcement.
The attorney general repeatedly raised the possibility of litigation at some future time under California's unfair competition and false advertising laws if developers continue to publish apps without privacy notices.
"We can sue and we will sue," she said, adding that she hoped the industry would act "in good faith."
There are nearly 600,000 applications for sale in the Apple App Store and 400,000 for sale in Google's Android Market, and consumers have downloaded more than 35 billion, said Harris.
There are also more than 50,000 individual developers who have created the mobile apps currently available for download on the leading platforms, she said.
These figures are expected to grow. She said an estimated 98 billion mobile applications will be downloaded by 2015, and the $6.8 billion market for mobile applications is expected to grow to $25 billion within four years.
(Reporting By Gerry Shih; Editing by Carol Bishopric and Michael Perry)
Source:
http://goo.gl/JIJqI
Showing posts with label Technology News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Technology News. Show all posts
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Web users make first impressions of website in less than a second
Washington, Feb 19 (ANI): It takes web users less than two-tenths of a second to form a first impression on a website, according to a recent eye-tracking research.
But, according to the research conducted at Missouri University of Science and Technology, it takes a little longer - about 2.6 seconds - for a user's eyes to land on that area of a website that most influences their first impression.
The finding could help web designers understand which elements of a website's design are most important for users.
"We know first impressions are very important. As more people use the Internet to search for information, a user's first impressions of a website can determine whether that user forms a favorable or unfavorable view of that organization," said Dr. Hong Sheng, assistant professor of business and information technology at Missouri S 'n' T.
For their research, Sheng and Sirjana Dahal, who received her graduate degree from Missouri S 'n' T last December, enlisted 20 students to view screenshots, or static images, of the main websites from 25 law schools in the U.S.
Using eye-tracking software and an infrared camera in Missouri S 'n' T's Laboratory for Information Technology Evaluation, the researchers monitored students' eye movements as they scanned the web pages.
The researchers then analyses the eye-tracking data to determine how long it took for the students to focus on specific sections of a page - such as the menu, logo, images and social media icons - before they moved on to another section.
Sheng and Dahal found that their subjects spent about 2.6 seconds scanning a website before focusing on a particular section. They spent an average of 180 milliseconds focusing, or "fixating," on one particular section before moving on.
After each viewing of a website, Sheng and Dahal asked students to rate sites based on aesthetics, visual appeal and other design factors.
"The longer the participants stayed on the page, the more favorable their impressions were. First impressions are important for keeping people on pages," Sheng stated.
The subjects considered sixteen of the 25 websites reviewed in the study favorable, according to Sheng.
Through this research, Sheng and Dahal found that seven sections of the reviewed websites attracted the most interest from users. The participants spent an average of 20 seconds on each website.
These include - the institution's logo, the main navigation menu, the search box, Social networking links to sites such as Facebook and Twitter, the site's main image, the site's written content, and the bottom of a website.
Although use of colour was not part of the eye-tracking study, participants indicated that it did influence their impressions of websites.
"Participants recommended the main colour and background colour be pleasant and attractive, and the contrast of the text colour should be such that it is easier to read," Dahal wrote in her master's thesis.
The use of images was also an important factor in web design, the subjects of the study said. "You must choose your main picture very carefully," Sheng said adding that, "An inappropriate image can lead to an unfavorable response from viewers." (ANI)
Source:
http://goo.gl/S8gpM
But, according to the research conducted at Missouri University of Science and Technology, it takes a little longer - about 2.6 seconds - for a user's eyes to land on that area of a website that most influences their first impression.
The finding could help web designers understand which elements of a website's design are most important for users.
"We know first impressions are very important. As more people use the Internet to search for information, a user's first impressions of a website can determine whether that user forms a favorable or unfavorable view of that organization," said Dr. Hong Sheng, assistant professor of business and information technology at Missouri S 'n' T.
For their research, Sheng and Sirjana Dahal, who received her graduate degree from Missouri S 'n' T last December, enlisted 20 students to view screenshots, or static images, of the main websites from 25 law schools in the U.S.
Using eye-tracking software and an infrared camera in Missouri S 'n' T's Laboratory for Information Technology Evaluation, the researchers monitored students' eye movements as they scanned the web pages.
The researchers then analyses the eye-tracking data to determine how long it took for the students to focus on specific sections of a page - such as the menu, logo, images and social media icons - before they moved on to another section.
Sheng and Dahal found that their subjects spent about 2.6 seconds scanning a website before focusing on a particular section. They spent an average of 180 milliseconds focusing, or "fixating," on one particular section before moving on.
After each viewing of a website, Sheng and Dahal asked students to rate sites based on aesthetics, visual appeal and other design factors.
"The longer the participants stayed on the page, the more favorable their impressions were. First impressions are important for keeping people on pages," Sheng stated.
The subjects considered sixteen of the 25 websites reviewed in the study favorable, according to Sheng.
Through this research, Sheng and Dahal found that seven sections of the reviewed websites attracted the most interest from users. The participants spent an average of 20 seconds on each website.
These include - the institution's logo, the main navigation menu, the search box, Social networking links to sites such as Facebook and Twitter, the site's main image, the site's written content, and the bottom of a website.
Although use of colour was not part of the eye-tracking study, participants indicated that it did influence their impressions of websites.
"Participants recommended the main colour and background colour be pleasant and attractive, and the contrast of the text colour should be such that it is easier to read," Dahal wrote in her master's thesis.
The use of images was also an important factor in web design, the subjects of the study said. "You must choose your main picture very carefully," Sheng said adding that, "An inappropriate image can lead to an unfavorable response from viewers." (ANI)
Source:
http://goo.gl/S8gpM
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