Benefits January 21, 2013

Mobile Apps Get Personal

January 22, 2013 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – Mobile phone applications may be invading your privacy.
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Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute studied both the data gathered by the 100 most popular programs in Google’s Android app store and how surprised users were when told what the apps were doing. Almost no one was surprised that Google Maps accessed location information, for example, but respondents had a strong negative reaction when they learned that the “Brightest Flashlight” app tracked their location, said Jason Hong, an associate professor at school.  

Of the top 100 Android apps, 56 collected location information, device identifiers and/or contact lists, according to the university’s research, NBC News reported. Users, however, often had no idea such data was being collected or how it might be used. For example, 58% of those asked about an app that collected device IDs were unaware that they could be used for marketing purposes; another 55% said the same about GPS location data.    

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A list of apps and the data collected by each: 

  • Brightest Flashlight (device ID, location); 
  • Toss It game (device ID, location); 
  • Angry Birds game (device ID, location); 
  • Talking Tom virtual pet (device ID); 
  • Backgrounds HD Wallpapers (device ID, contacts); 
  • Dictionary.com (device ID, location); 
  • Mouse Trap game (device ID); 
  • Horoscope (device ID, location); 
  • Shazam music (device ID, location); and 
  • Pandora Internet Radio (device ID, contacts). 
Users who download Android apps are shown a box which indicates what kind of data the app might collect, but multiple studies show that users merely ignore the disclosure, just as they do with website privacy policies.
Products January 21, 2013

Paper Addresses Selection of Retirement Income Products

January 22, 2013 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – Retirement plan sponsors and participants are increasingly focused on how to make participant retirement savings last a lifetime.
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To address this need, product providers are offering a growing number of institutionally priced retirement income products. For plan sponsors, understanding the different types of products available is the first step toward selecting the right retirement income product for their participants.   

The Institutional Retirement Income Council has issued a paper that presents a framework to organize the major types of retirement income products available in the marketplace and examine the merits of each in the context of the goals and objectives of a typical plan sponsor, as well as steps plan sponsors should follow as they explore retirement income products for their participants.   

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Although it will likely be the first time most plan sponsors have considered an option that involves guarantees and annuity features, many of the points in the process are the same as in the selection of mutual fund options for the plan. The sponsor must follow the prudent steps necessary in the selection of any option, and the process must be well-documented.   

The Council’s paper is here.

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