Direct Marketing, Mobile Phones, and Consumer Privacy: Ensuring Adequate Disclosure and Consent Mechanisms for Emerging Mobile Advertising Practices

Advertisers are poised to deliver advertising to cell phones in the U.S. This emerging advertising context is called mobile advertising. It will generate a host of privacy and personal data issues for consumers and for mobile advertisers, mobile phone manufacturers, and mobile carriers. This Article focuses on the existing federal regulatory environment applicable to mobile advertising and consumer privacy, the role of federal administrative agencies that enforce consumer privacy regulation, and the potential for industry selfregulation, particularly privacy policies, to enhance consumer privacy. It assesses the adequacy of the existing federal consumer privacy regulation as well as potential consumer remedies under contract theories and privacy tort laws.

Concluding that meaningful disclosure of privacy practices and obtaining adequate consumer consent are essential privacy concerns in mobile advertising, the Article identifies weaknesses in the current regulatory system and offers simple suggestions for regulatory improvements to bolster consumers' privacy protections.