On Wednesday, The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) raised the curtain on its finalized MMA Mobile Application Privacy Policy, which is being hailed as the first guidelines document of its kind that addresses the core privacy issues and data processes of many mobile applications.

As MMW previously reported, the MMA Mobile Application Privacy Policy was created by the MMA Privacy & Advocacy Committee in response to the rapid growth in mobile app popularity among smartphone users and mobile marketers.

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It’s been announced that the  mobile marketing industry now has a brand new global trade organization known as the “Mobile Marketing Research Association,” or MMRA.

Launched this month, the MMRA was founded with the mission of uniting and serving the industry by developing professional standards and ethics to advance the use of mobile devices for marketing research.  According to its press release, the MMRA says it’s an “action-oriented organization designed to establish mobile research guidelines and best practices for sustainable growth, develop research and advocate for issues that grow the industry, provide quality education and evangelize the mobile marketing research channel for use by clients, researchers and participants.”

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Customers concerned about Carrier IQ remaining on their Sprint/HTC devices can now rest their minds.

In case you’re unfamiliar, the Carrier IQ software is what’s known as a rootkit that is installed at a carrier’s request on mobile phones. Carrier IQ raises user privacy concerns because it runs in the background and monitors and logs user activity. Carrier IQ is known to be installed on well over 100 million devices around the world.

As of today, however, Sprint Nextel says Carrier IQ software is effectively erased from devices across its network. The move was achieved in part by Sprint’s partnership with HTC, which yielded a firmware update targeting Carrier IQ.

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On Thursday, T-Mobile USA Inc. and Motorola Mobility Inc. confirmed that some of their mobile devices did, in fact, contain Carrier IQ Inc. software that collected user data.

The admission comes in response to calls from U.S. lawmakers to beef up safeguards of customer privacy.

According to a report from Bloomberg, approximately 450,000 T-Mobile customers “use nine devices containing the software that provides data including telephone numbers dialed and received.”

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Some of the biggest names in mobile have been named in a new class-action lawsuit stemming from the Carrier IQ revelation that rocked the mobile privacy world last month.

The Carrier IQ software is what’s known as a rootkit that is installed at a carrier’s request on mobile phones. The software raises user privacy concerns in light of the fact that it runs in the background and monitors and logs user activity.

Carrier IQ is believed to be installed on well over 100 million devices today.

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The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) today announced new privacy policy guidelines aimed at governing mobile applications, which are now open to public comment.

The new privacy policy marks the first of its kind to address the “core privacy issues and data processes of many mobile applications,” according to the MMA.  “These new privacy policy guidelines fill an urgent need for all companies doing business in the mobile marketing industry.  The guidelines are intended to provide ways to give the mobile application developer a clear and transparent policy language that can be quickly and completely understood by the consumer,” said MMA Global CEO Greg Stuart.  “Today’s release is the first in series of privacy policy guidelines that the MMA will create with the input of industry leaders across the mobile ecosystem.”

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Verizon Wireless is revamping its privacy policy to such an extent that the carrier can now track its subscribers’ Web browsing, location and app usage tendencies.

For now, the policy applies to all customers although Verizon says they can opt out if they want.

Verizon says the reason for the privacy change is that the data collected will help them make the “mobile ads you see more relevant.”

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