We hosted the most recent mashup* Event a short while ago where we discussed the joys of the new open source mobile platforms - Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android, and Symbian (pushed by Nokia). 100 industry developers, investors, entrepeneurs and ad men attended and contributed to the event but there was one recurring theme - privacy and security. Is this really the most important part in mobile development? Or should we be paying attention?

I was really interested to hear what this mish mash of industry insiders would churn up for the conversation but apart from the odd mandatory SMS joke on screen, I spent a lot of time listening to talk about the privacy of data, the inevitable arrival of spam app’s and identity theft paranoia.

Is it paranoia though? I hope so.

Do I care? Not really.

But our compare/facilitator Tony Fish did - he’s been a victim of identity theft twice in the last year. (Click here for his mum’s maiden name and make it a hat-trick). Tony claimed that given the regulation that Google is not offering for 3rd party applications, Android OS phone owners could end up with spam apps or trojan horses. Meanwhile iPhone users would be safe as houses.

Remarkably, this remained the topic of conversation for a large part of the talk showing that it really was an element that industry insiders feared or care about. From a consumer point of view, I just don’t see this being a concern. I don’t have rogue apps on my PC because I exercise caution in opening unknown emails - even when they offer me free pr0n. I cannot see that it would be any different on my phone. But perhaps that is because I have not had my identity stolen yet. From an advertisers point of view, avoiding Apple’s SDK gateway restrictions and making mobile platforms even more open source will affect any brands that are  keen to get a mobile presence. For one thing, it will be easier to get on to a mobile platform. But on the flip side, we are probably about to see a lot of noise generated from smaller developers and daytime TV brands. If there is one time to get involved in mobile, it is now - before the mobile app market becomes overloaded with price comparison apps, ambulance chasers (and viruses).