On lawful disclosure of personal user data: What should app developers do?

The proliferation of mobile devices and apps together with the increasing public interest in privacy and data protection matters necessitate a more careful precaution for legal compliance. As apps are becoming more popular, app developers can expect an increased scrutiny of privacy practices in the future. In this paper, we focus on the problem of the disclosure of personal data to third parties and the role of app developers to enhance user privacy and data protection in the app ecosystem. We discuss the EU data protection principles and apply them to the mobile app context. We then derive requirements and guidelines for app developers on how to contribute to the protection of their users' data.