Mobile Application Guidelines
Below are both requirements and best practices for employing mobile apps for conferences and events. Event organizers should share this document with their app developers, including any vendors hired or other stakeholders.
IEEE Privacy Policy
The mobile app must include mechanisms through which the user agrees to the IEEE Privacy Policy (include link), the event terms and conditions (unless already accepted during registration), and the end-user license agreement.
The user can use the app only after agreeing to these terms and policies.
Communications / Notifications
To ensure compliance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other regulations, the user must be able to provide explicit consent to receive push notifications, email, or any other type of communications triggered by app functionality or driven by data contained within the app. The app must provide opportunity tofor the user to turn off push communications without affecting the rest of the app’s available functionality.
Granular Control
The mobile app must offer the user granular preferences to control what aspects of the profile and personal information are visible to other users of the app (for example, the app must provide for the user to hide his/her profile avatar or profile title if the user chooses to). Other users must be able to view information about an attendee only if both of the following are true:
- the user has registered for the event and has chosen not to hide their information.
- If the user later revokes the latter consent, the app and any social sharing mechanisms must immediately cease showing the information to other users.
The user must be given the explicit option of whether to let their information be shared with third parties (exhibitors, etc.). The app should disclose who the third parties are and what types of information will be shared with them. If the user opts not to consent, the app must enable all functionality that doesn’t rely on sharing the data with a third party.
Data Collection
The app should collect only the information that is necessary to provide the functionality, and should be designed to ensure that all data collected is stored, processed, and transferred securely. If the user revokes consent to use collected data, the best practice would be to remove nonessential data from the database.
Additional IEEE Requirements
Mobile apps developed for IEEE events must adhere to the guidelines from the IEEE Digital Innovations and Legal teams. Mobile apps published for an event should be de-listed from mobile app stores within 45 days after the event concludes.
Contact IEEE Mobile Center of Excellence at mobiledev@ieee.org for any assistance required with publishing the mobile app for the event to the mobile app stores.