Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.) has released a letter calling for the institution of mandatory privacy policies from all apps offered via the official software marketplaces of Apple and Google.

"Requiring that each app in your stores have a clear, understandable privacy policy would not resolve most of the privacy concerns in the mobile world," he writes. "But it would be a simple first step that would provide users, privacy advocates and federal consumer protection authorities a minimum of information about what information an app will access and how that app will share that information with third parties."

Franken adds: "Although I believe there is a greater need for transparency and disclosure for the collection and sharing of all personal information, at a minimum, I ask that you require all location-aware applications in your app stores to provide privacy policies that clearly specify what kind of location information is gathered from users, how that information is used, and how it is shared with third parties. These apps constitute only a subset of all the apps available on your stores."

You can read the entire letter at http://franken.senate.gov/files/letter/110525_Apple_Google_Privacy_Polic... .