Senate Banking Committee Chair Presses Apple and Alphabet on Trading App Safeguards
"While firms that offer crypto investment and other related services should take the necessary steps to prevent fraudulent activity, including warning investors about the uptick in scams, it is likewise imperative that app stores have the proper safeguards in place to prevent against fraudulent mobile application activity."
Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
"While firms that offer crypto investment and other related services should take the necessary steps to prevent fraudulent activity, including warning investors about the uptick in scams, it is likewise imperative that app stores have the proper safeguards in place to prevent against fraudulent mobile application activity."
Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown (D-OH) requested information from Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc. on each company's safeguards in making available mobile apps that allow customers to trade digital assets.
In separate letters to the companies' CEOs (see letters to Apple and Alphabet), Senator Brown asked each company to provide information on its policies for protecting consumers from cryptocurrency scams, including how each company:
- reviews the application of a cryptocurrency app prior to listing it on an app store;
- prevents cryptocurrency apps from circumventing policies, such as by transforming into phishing apps;
- collects reports from consumers that flag fraudulent apps; and
- alerts consumers about actual or potential fraudulent activity associated with cryptocurrency investment apps.
"While firms that offer crypto investment and other related services should take the necessary steps to prevent fraudulent activity," Senator Brown wrote, "it is likewise imperative that app stores have the proper safeguards in place to prevent against fraudulent mobile application activity."