Accountability Program Announces Work with Kryptowire

Virginia-based Security Firm Providing Advanced Mobile Application Tool for Compliance Investigations

Arlington, VA – May 4, 2016 – The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program announced that Kryptowire, LLC, a Fairfax-based security firm, is providing technical services and staff support to assist the Accountability Program in monitoring mobile applications’ compliance with the Digital Advertising Alliance’s Self-Regulatory Principles in the challenging world of mobile. The Accountability Program protects consumer privacy in the digital advertising marketplace by ensuring all companies engaged in interest-based advertising provide transparency and control to consumers about the collection and use of their data for use in tailored advertising. As consumers increasingly rely on mobile devices to access the Internet and the advertising industry directs more and more of its revenue to reaching them on their smartphones, it is critical to ensure that consumers have the same protections on their mobile devices as they do on their desktops. Kryptowire’s technical expertise is helping the Accountability Program to monitor compliance in the mobile marketplace.

“The ever-expanding list of mobile apps available on the Internet presents an enormous challenge to regulators and self-regulators alike. We are delighted to have Kryptowire assist in our effort to protect consumer privacy on mobile devices, where it is arguably needed most,” said Genie Barton, Council of Better Business Bureaus VP and Director of the Accountability Program.

Kryptowire’s mobile analysis platform allows the Accountability Program team to screen many more apps for compliance issues than would be possible manually. The platform offers ready insight into the collection of data by third parties, including whether the third parties are collecting the precise location of a user’s mobile device or a user’s photos and call logs, which would both require consent under advertising industry self-regulatory principles. This testing solution can simulate an actual user’s interaction with an app, automating the otherwise-burdensome task of dynamic analysis and providing much richer results than a simple, static app scan.

“Working with the Accountability Program gave us the opportunity to apply our mobile app analytics technology to solve cutting edge problems at the intersection of advertising, mobile security, and privacy. Being able to automatically analyze and understand what data mobile apps collect, how they protect it, and whom they share it with is crucial because mobile applications are becoming the preferred way of conducting business and targeting the consumer market,” said the CEO of Kryptowire, Angelos Stavrou.