Those of us consumed in the world of mobile marketing and its subsequent topics tend to easily forget about the backbone of the mobile industry- the wireless companies themselves.  While they exist with a tremendous amount of regulation, the FCC and other government organizations are flooded with consumer complaints and internal inquiries each and every year.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has taken notice of the problem and called on the FCC to not only increase oversight of the entire wireless industry, but to do a better job of enforcing consumer protection rules as well.  A report compiled by the GAO regarding the situation was done so at the request of Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., a member of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet.

Interestingly enough, the report comes almost four months after the FCC opened a series of inquiries into the state of the wireless industry, including an examination of so-called “truth-in-billing” rules, which require phone companies to clearly describe charges on consumer bills, for example.  Apparently, the GAO wants more.

To complete its report, the GAO conducted a random survey of more than 1,100 wireless customers around the country. It found that while 84 percent of consumers are satisfied with their mobile phone service, millions are unhappy with issues such as wireless billing practices, customer service, early termination fees and other contract terms- no surprise there.

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There’s been numerous studies, surveys and analysis regarding consumer’s view of SMS marketing and how they respond to messages from advertisers, with most coming to the conclusion that SMS marketing is always welcomed by consumers as long as its worth their while.

A new study put out by the DMA (Direct Marketing Association) polled consumers regarding their view of SMS marketing and found that users request much more control, as well as a sense of trust from the brands that are reaching out to them.  These so-called unwritten rules of acceptable engagement via mobile was what the DMA was interested in analyzing.

Gaining a sense of control over what messages are being sent to them, and the overall integrity and trust shown by the brands are the underlying aspects consumers request, with over half of respondents feeling that companies didn’t make the opt-in process clear enough, for example.  In addition, two-thirds of respondents wanted to choose the time of day they received mobile marketing messages, while the majority of respondents didn’t even know who had contacted them.

What consumers worry about the most with regards to SMS marketing is the underlying threat of SMS spam and the mis-conceptions surrounding the practice.  While only one-third of respondents believe that they are increasingly receiving more spam, the report reveals that people are confused about the financial cost of spam. One-third of respondents believe that simply receiving a spam message will result in a charge to their mobile bill, while the same number believe that opening a spam message results in charges.

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Smartphone apps are getting more and more comprehensive everyday it seems, and with the advent of location-based services, mobile social networking and other genres, privacy is becoming increasingly important.

There’s been a recent surge of developers and consumers that have noticed what some apps are doing behind the scenes in terms of gathering user information- and it’s raising concerns for those who value their privacy.  A programmer recently discovered, for example, that Pre’s smartphone OS was sending users’ GPS information back to Palm, even though the company’s privacy policy revealed as much.

In addition, ReadWriteWeb is reporting that mobile analytics company Pinch Media allows developers to insert code into applications in order to create a user profile.  The information is designed to help developers, although some consider the technique invasive.  If the user profile is used with good intentions to help the app in what ever it’s supposed to accomplish, then so be it, but when that user information is used for other purposes without the user’s consent, it creates a big problem.

The regulations associated with this sort of thing are very ambiguous- app developers submitting to Apple’s App store, for example, aren’t required to reveal what types of data they’re tracking.  Also, when users consent to have their location revealed, app developers don’t necessarily have to disclose what additional data they’re tracking.

Until regulation is put in place, the only defense is to go over every single line of your TOS and privacy policy associated with any new app you think will collect sensitive user information- since almost nobody will do such a thing, we’re still at the mercy of the app developers.

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We’ve heard a lot about security loopholes, malware and other problems related to SMS recently, but this one is truly scary.  An Israeli wireless carrier has been sued for allegedely wiretapping, in thatit stores all SMS messages sent or received over its network.

The lawsuit emphasizes that Pelephone, the wireless carrier in question, not only stores “communications data”, such as when messages are sent, the phone numbers of the sender and recipient, and length of the SMS, but that the company also keeps the entire content of the messages.

Pelephone admits that they do in fact store SMS content in a “secured database” with limited access, and that they only store the content of any one message for no longer than one month.  The reason they do so is to “provide SMS services,” the company states.  The spokesman also admitted that the time the company holds the content of SMS messages varies slightly from system to system- meaning that it most likely keeps the content much longer than one month in most cases.

Upon signing up for service with Pelephone, users give “implied consent” to the saving of their SMS message content, the company claims, but the those sueing the company see it differently.  The claimants argue that Pelephone has no authorization to save SMS messages, and that it infringes on both the privacy of its subscribers and on the privacy of subscribers of other networks, by concealing the fact of the storage from them.

Not many details have been released regarding the outcome of this lawsuit, as its still being played out, but we’ll definitely be watching this one.  It just goes to show you that you should always read the fine print, even when signing up for wireless service.

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SecureSMS, a product from CellTrust that promises a secure mobile environment for “critical information,” has won the Communication Solutions product of the year for 2008 from Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC).

SecureSMS is designed to help organizations in healthcare, financial services/banking, government, education, travel and mobile advertising to have the ability to exchange critical information with customers in a trusted environment on the mobile device.  Unlike traditional SMS communication, SecureSMS adds a multi-layer level of encryption and security to messages that contain more sensitive information.

Among other things, SecureSMS adds control to manage confidential information exchange via mobile devices, accountability with recipient confirmation when SMS is received and opened, enterprise level compliance without costly development or server infrastructure investment, carrier-ready compatibility with more than 710 carriers in over 217 countries and security with end-to-end encryption across the mobile ecosystem (i.e. carriers, tower operators, infrastructure providers or aggregators).

Working in conjunction with CellTrust’s “SecureSMS Gateway,” SecureSMS works by utilizing a micro client that installs on the handset to communicate with the SecureSMS Gateway.  The application is similar to a regular SMS editor and encrypts outgoing secure messages as well as decrypts incoming secure messages received via the SecureSMS Gateway. 

As more and more information is being shared via SMS from business to consumer or vice versa, especially information that’s private or extra-sensitive, security and an extra layer of protection will be vital.  Products like this will only further the innovation surrounding SMS, so its no wonder they won the product of the year when it comes to mobile technology solutions.

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I’ve been meaning to make this illustration for a few weeks now since some discussion regarding sending SMS bubbled up here and here.

This is a very good topic for newcomers and so I’ll tag this in the Starter Kit so that folks getting their feet wet with Mobile Marketing will know to avoid using email as the sending engine. Though it can be accomplished in house by having your developers set up your application so that SMS is firing out of your email server that’s not really how you want to approach sending SMS messages.

Failing to have any kind of contractual agreement with the carrier is the primary reason you want to avoid the urge to simply fire your SMS campaigns from your own email server. You want these things getting sent from an organization that has agreements in place with the carriers so that your campaign isn’t looked at as potential spam that should be shut down in its entirety which might include blacklisting your email server for entire carrier network.

This is how the carrier is thinking and with no agreement in place you have no guarantee that your campaign will be delivered. That puts your conversion plan and the campaign at an unnecessary risk when you can engage a Mobile Marketing partner to deliver the message for pennies.

Sure, the Carrier is not stopping all messaging that comes through via an email server. In fact I just tested a Mobile application last Month and advised the company to change their sending strategy as soon as possible. The point though is that they very easily could and so you should not risk it.

Greg Harris from Mobivity posted this great answer in LinkedIn regarding the same question. It’s one of the best I’ve come across.

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The other day I blogged about TeleFlip and a couple of things that I thought they needed. Donna Amato, Director of Communications at TeleFlip contacted me to let me know that they just released a feature that lets you upload your entire address book. Nice!

Truth be known, Donna emailed me Wednesday and I’ve been behind all week. I’m such a slacker! Anyone that has a 19 Month old in their house knows how hard it can be to get things done when kids are at that age. I think I logged 20 miles in August following my Daughter around the house. I love it though, my highlight of the week was when she sat down with me while I read her If You Give A Moose A Muffin.

Thanks for the status update Donna, this is something that users will certainly appreciate. Who wants to enter contacts in manually right?

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