The Association for Competitive Technology (ACT) released today the App Privacy Icons as part of the company’s App Trust Project.

The App Privacy Icons feature is part of a campaign to provide app developers with resources to show easily digestible information regarding privacy settings and features of their apps.

In an effort to provide consumers with information they need to make informed purchasing decisions, the advocacy and educational organization worked eight months to come up with these simple-to-read icons that provide the data collection and sharing practices of mobile apps.

Additionally, ACT will be developing open-source code for developers to use in their apps and will be leading a campaign to promote its tools via social media, developer events and advertisements.

The icons help consumers see at a glance what each app contains including in-app advertisements, social media integration, location tracking, hyperlinks to websites opening on a mobile browser and in-app purchase functionality. Icons can be integrated in multiple places including app websites, in the app itself and in app store documentation. Note that the first generation of App Privacy Icons is designed specifically for children’s apps.

In hopes to guiding the continued development of the icons, ACT has put together an Advisory Board including ACT director of outreach Sara Kloek, Moms with Apps co-founder Lorraine Akemann, Privacy Choice founder Jim Brock and Operatio Apps co-founder Tore Hansen.

ACT will also start a campaign to promote the icons and privacy transparency between app developers. ACT plans to work with platform providers,  industry organizations and developers to encourage adoption of the icons, highlight successes and best practices and make any changes and improvements where ACT sees fit.

App developers can go to a new website for the icons here, which includes information on how to implement the icons, links to source code and graphic files.