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Liberty alliance to safeguard mobile users against spam

Liberty Alliance, puts together team to create service interface specifications for content messaging, in an attempt to safeguard the privacy of mobile device users.

Liberty Alliance, the global consortium for open identity standards and identity-based web services, has put together a team whose aim is to create service interface specifications for content messaging, including both SMS (Short Message Service) and MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service), in an attempt to safeguard the privacy of mobile device users.

Add-ons for mobile devices, such as new ring tones, skins and wallpapers, are becoming increasingly popular, particularly in Europe, and business is booming for the providers of this type of content (content messaging). The transaction between user and provider takes place via SMS or MMS text message: the user sends an SMS or MMS text message to the content provider to request the content. The provider then downloads the relevant content to the user via a series of SMS messages containing the encoded content. However, the Liberty Alliance, whose membership includes more than 150 international companies, non-profit and government organizations, has recognised that this practice leaves the user vulnerable to privacy intrusion and spam, since there are no regulations in place that prevent content providers from passing the user’s information on to others.

The Content SMS and MMS (CSM) Service Interface Specifications will give content providers access to a mobile network, allowing the receipt and delivery of SMS and MMS messages both to and from users. As a result, users will be able to obtain content for their devices anonymously, thus eliminating the opportunity for their details to be passed or sold to third parties. The specifications will be deployable based on the Liberty’s Identity Web Services Framework (IS-WSF). For more details see http://www.projectliberty.org/.

19 June 2005

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