[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4048 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4048

   To direct the Federal Trade Commission to promulgate regulations 
  prohibiting mobile applications from accessing certain content and 
functions of a mobile device when such applications are not actively in 
 use unless the user is provided with a disclosure of such access and 
           grants affirmative express consent to such access.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 11, 2014

  Mr. Duffy introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To direct the Federal Trade Commission to promulgate regulations 
  prohibiting mobile applications from accessing certain content and 
functions of a mobile device when such applications are not actively in 
 use unless the user is provided with a disclosure of such access and 
           grants affirmative express consent to such access.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Securing Our Nation's Application 
Privacy Act of 2014'' or the ``SNAP Act of 2014''.

SEC. 2. ACCESS BY MOBILE APPLICATIONS TO CERTAIN DEVICE CONTENT AND 
              FUNCTIONS.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 1 year after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Federal Trade Commission shall promulgate 
regulations in accordance with section 553 of title 5, United States 
Code, that require--
            (1) any person who develops, sells or offers for sale, or 
        otherwise makes available to consumers a mobile application to 
        ensure that the application does not access any content or 
        functions described in subsection (b) while the application is 
        not actively in use, unless--
                    (A) the application triggers the disclosure and 
                consent functions of the mobile platform or operating 
                system described in paragraph (2); and
                    (B) the user grants affirmative express consent as 
                described in such paragraph; and
            (2) any person who develops, sells or offers for sale, or 
        otherwise makes available to consumers a mobile platform or 
        operating system to ensure that the mobile platform or 
        operating system--
                    (A) immediately before any mobile application that 
                is installed on the mobile device and that is not 
                actively in use accesses any content or functions 
                described in subsection (b), provides the user of the 
                device with a disclosure of such access and the 
                opportunity to grant affirmative express consent to 
                such access or to deny such access; and
                    (B) prevents the application from engaging in such 
                access unless the user of the device grants such 
                affirmative express consent.
    (b) Content Described.--The content and functions described in this 
subsection are the following:
            (1) Information about the geographic location of the 
        device.
            (2) Contact information of individuals stored on the 
        device.
            (3) Photographs, video recordings, or audio recordings 
        stored on the device.
            (4) Events or notations stored in a calendar application 
        (or an application with calendar functions) on the device.
            (5) A camera of the device or any information obtained from 
        such a camera.
            (6) A microphone of the device or any information obtained 
        from such a microphone.
            (7) Such additional content or functions specified by the 
        Federal Trade Commission in the regulations promulgated under 
        subsection (a) as the Commission considers necessary to protect 
        the privacy of users of mobile devices.

SEC. 3. ENFORCEMENT BY FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION.

    (a) Unfair or Deceptive Acts or Practices.--A violation of a 
regulation promulgated under section 2 shall be treated as a violation 
of a regulation under section 18(a)(1)(B) of the Federal Trade 
Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 57a(a)(1)(B)) regarding unfair or deceptive 
acts or practices.
    (b) Powers of Commission.--The Federal Trade Commission shall 
enforce the regulations promulgated under section 2 in the same manner, 
by the same means, and with the same jurisdiction, powers, and duties 
as though all applicable terms and provisions of the Federal Trade 
Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.) were incorporated into and made a 
part of this Act. Any person who violates such a regulation shall be 
subject to the penalties and entitled to the privileges and immunities 
provided in the Federal Trade Commission Act.

SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Actively in use.--The term ``actively in use'' means, 
        with respect to a mobile application, that--
                    (A) the application is operating in accordance with 
                the terms of service provided by the developer of the 
                application to the user of the mobile device; and
                    (B) the user of the mobile device is interacting 
                with the application or the application is otherwise 
                operating in a manner such that a user of ordinary 
                technical expertise and experience would consider the 
                application to be active, open, or running.
            (2) Mobile application.--The term ``mobile application'' 
        means a software program that runs on the mobile platform or 
        operating system of a mobile device.
            (3) Mobile device.--The term ``mobile device'' means a 
        smartphone, tablet computer, or similar portable computing 
        device that transmits data over a wireless connection.
            (4) Mobile platform or operating system.--The term ``mobile 
        platform or operating system'' means the software that enables 
        the basic functionality of a mobile device and the installation 
        and use of mobile applications on the device.
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