Read Jason’s post on his recent/real experience related to mobile advertising, and how when he clicked on an AdMob ad, the advertiser (not AdMob?), without permission, recorded the phone number and immediately initiated SPAM over SMS… Terrible. Here in the U.S. that could prompt a Class Action lawsuit against the advertiser, the ad engine provider, the message aggregator, and others involved in the flow, similar to a class action lawsuit where I served as expert witness (but that I can’t talk about)…

If you are creating software for mobiles that pushes information to users:

  1. provide a mechanism for explicit registration/opt-in (i.e. clicking on an ad link is not the same as opting in),
  2. record (and report) such acknowledgment,
  3. only send/push information if the user opted-in, and,
  4. provide for a de-registration mechanism.

Never SPAM people, no, no. If you do, you are EVIL.

ceo