Mobile App Privacy Law: A Compliance Map for Founders and Counsel

58 questions on mobile app privacy law, answered and cited by the UpLaw editorial team.

• A U.S. developer has no European customers on purpose — does the GDPR still matter?
• Can an app collect precise location to show nearby content?
• Does a developer's good faith about an SDK's behavior matter to the FTC?
• Does a small app really need a privacy policy?
• Does having a good notification plan substitute for having good security?
• Does HIPAA cover a direct-to-consumer wellness app?
• How does the GDPR's architecture differ fundamentally from the American patchwork?
• How do other states' biometric laws compare to BIPA?
• How do state age-appropriate design codes fit alongside COPPA?
• How do three separate regimes stack up against one background-location SDK?
• How has the COPPA Rule been tightened, and what does that mean for design?
• How must an app handle transfers of European users' data to the United States?
• How should a developer respond to fifty different state privacy laws?
• Is a developer responsible for what an embedded third-party SDK collects?
• Is consent obtained through a dark pattern valid?
• Is there a lawful way to keep behavioral ads in a child-directed app and skip parental consent?
• Is "the user clicked Accept" the end of the analysis?
• What are the six steps of a pre-launch privacy program?
• What does a compliant consent interface look like?
• What does a data breach trigger for an app with users nationwide?
• What does an FTC privacy order actually cost beyond the fine?
• What does Apple's App Tracking Transparency framework require?
• What does COPPA require once it applies?
• What does Illinois's BIPA cover?
• What does the "Find Friends" problem teach generally, and what is the clean design?
• What do the non-California state privacy laws have in common?
• What four structural features make mobile privacy uniquely treacherous?
• What has the FTC done about location data brokers?
• What is a dark pattern?
• What is a sectoral privacy law?
• What is Google Play's Data Safety requirement?
• What is the compliance rule for any face, voice, or fingerprint feature?
• What is the consent-flow problem in contact harvesting?
• What is the FTC's unfairness test, and why is it the reach-extender?
• What is the GDPR's digital-consent age for children?
• What is the non-user problem in a "Find Friends" contact upload?
• What is the quieter litigation risk around location tracking?
• What is the single instruction underneath all of mobile privacy law?
• What makes an app data practice "deceptive" under FTC Act Section 5?
• What operational duties does the GDPR impose beyond a lawful basis?
• What rights does the CCPA/CPRA give consumers?
• What three features make BIPA so dangerous?
• What was the Goldenshores flashlight case and why does it still matter?
• When does COPPA apply to an app?
• When does GLBA apply to a fintech app, and what does the Safeguards Rule require?
• When does the GDPR apply to a U.S. app developer?
• Which businesses does the CCPA/CPRA cover?
• Which CCPA/CPRA features bite app developers specifically?
• Which high-risk categories need special design attention up front?
• Which sectoral breach-notification duties overlay the state statutes?
• Why are Apple and Google the most immediate privacy regulators for most developers?
• Why can behavioral advertising inside a kids' app be a COPPA violation by itself?
• Why do desktop-web privacy intuitions mislead on mobile?
• Why does an ordinary mobile app trigger so many privacy laws at once?
• Why has the Video Privacy Protection Act become a class-action engine against apps?
• Why is platform compliance a gating requirement, and why are store disclosures a legal document?
• Why is precise geolocation treated as inherently sensitive?
• Why should app counsel read FTC consent orders like appellate opinions?