Ringtones, images, news and weather forecasts: the rapidly growing market for mobile content services represents new business opportunities for mobile operators. These for example include selling personal information such as location data about users to providers of content services.
PTS and the Data Inspection Board have run a joint project to examine how data regarding mobile phone users is transmitted between stakeholders in the market for mobile content services. This category of service is subject to two regulatory frameworks: the Electronic Communications Act, for which PTS is the supervisory authority, and the Personal Data Act, for which the Data Inspection Board is the corresponding public authority.
"Not only operators but also content providers process personal data, and it is important from the perspective of privacy that the responsibility for such processing is clearly defined. Market stakeholders have been uncertain about who bears this responsibility, which we have now made clear," says Göran Marby, Director-General of PTS.
Mobile operators always have an initial responsibility for personal data as it originates in their networks. Usually, however, operators are only responsible up to and including the point in time when the personal data is transmitted to the content provider, which subsequently takes over this responsibility.
The above-mentioned analysis shows that, in general, personal data processing by mobile content services works satisfactorily, but there is room for improvement. This includes content providers informing users about their right to receive extracts from records and the possibility of requesting correction of data; also, explaining why personal data is collected and processed. It is inappropriate to use mobile telephone numbers for identification unnecessarily, as access to these numbers enables content providers to track consumers' use of mobile content services.
"The market for mobile content services is young and characterised by innovation and cooperation between various stakeholders in the sector, particularly when exchanging information about mobile phone users. It is important for the generally very promising development of mobile services to take the rights of users into consideration," says Göran Gräslund, Director-General of the Data Inspection Board.
The authorities will continue to monitor developments in the field of mobile content services.
Read the report (only in Swedish)
For more information please contact:
PTS
Christoffer Karsberg, head of Security and Addressing, tel. 08-678 57 51
Per Bergstrand tel. 08-678 57 08
PTS's Press Office tel. 08-678 55 55
Data Inspection Board
Jonas Agnvall tel. 08-657 61 07 or 070-822 85 74
Per Lövgren tel. 070-736 10 80