CTIA-The Wireless Association unveiled "Best Practices and Guidelines for Mobile Financial Services (MFS),"
which were unanimously approved by America's leading wireless carrier
companies.
The voluntary initiative was developed to provide consumers
with a high level of safety and security for mobile banking, commerce
and payments products and services.
The purpose of the guidelines
is to promote clear and rewarding consumer experiences, to establish an
environment where MFS transactions are authorized, secure, and
compliant with applicable laws and industry guidelines, and to protect
user privacy and financial data. Areas covered by the guidelines
include data security, consent, disclosure and account information
access, which are critical areas to assure wireless users of safety,
security, and privacy. Overall, the Best Practices promote
responsibility by the Application Providers to protect consumer
information in all stages of a transaction.
The guidlines address important privacy concerns and help to set expectations
of what MFS products and services will look like in the U.S.
Many security issues that are prevalent today, such as online fraud and identity theft, didn't even exist a decade ago. The Best Practices and Guidelines
are flexible enough to anticipate future developments in MFS,
technology advances for security measures, and will remain effective
even though the types of future threats cannot be defined today.
Copies of the "Best Practices and Guidelines for Mobile Financial Services" are now available.