US investigates Pandora on mobile apps privacy

INTERNET RADIO COMPANY Pandora has been subpoenaed in the US about its privacy practices relating to smartphone applications.

Pandora will be questioned as part of a federal grand jury investigation of the way it handles personal information on the mobile apps it developed for Apple and Android devices.

Pandora revealed the subpoena in a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing on Monday. The grand jury is investigating whether mobile apps developers are violating privacy regulations.

"We were served with a subpoena to produce documents in connection with a federal grand jury, which we believe was convened to investigate the information sharing processes of certain popular applications that run on the Apple and Android mobile platforms," Pandora said in the SEC filing.

The problem developers have is the pressure to design mobile apps that track personal information so they can be used by marketing staffs and advertisers. Those online tracking features are under heavy scrutiny, especially in the US and UK, as governments and privacy bodies are seeking to create regulations that give consumers more control of their own data online.

In mid-March the White House asked the US Congress to sign off on a "privacy bill of rights" to protect US citizens from data harvesting. That initiative was a result of pressure from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to get developers and advertisers to implement a "do not track" policy. That would mean web surfers would have more privacy online and greater control of their personal information.

The grand-jury hasn't singled out Pandora for investigation but the Internet radio company was the first to come forward about it. That means we can expect to see more companies revealing that their privacy practices are under investigation over the next few weeks and months. µ