I’m a couple of days in to using the new Google Nexus as my main tablet device, and I have been struck by how Android does a much better job than Apple iOS when it comes to privacy disclosure. Most importantly, you can’t download an app on Android without clicking through clear disclosure about the data permissions you are giving to the app. Here’s an example — so you can clearly see that the Spiderman Wallpaper for some reason needs access to all of my email and messages (first screen) and what that means (second screen). This information is also always available from your list of Apps (third screen).
Of course, it’s one thing to show the data available to the app (which Android can confirm by seeing which device API calls are made by the app); it’s another thing to show what the publisher will do with that data, how long they will keep it and with whom they will share it. If Android can integrate those kinds of policy disclosures into the same format, the app user can truly have complete visibility on the data available to the app and how it will be used.