California Attorney General Kamala Harris on Tuesday announced that her office began formally notifying 100 mobile application developers and companies that they are not in compliance with that state's privacy law. The companies can face fines of up to $2,500 each time a non-compliant app is downloaded.

The letters are the first step in taking legal action to enforce the California Online Privacy Protection Act for online services that collect personally identifiable information. They will initially target “those who have the most popular apps available on mobile platforms,” a statement from the AG's office said. Companies will have 30 days to “conspicuously post” a privacy policy within their app that informs users of what personally identifiable information about them is being collected and what will be done with that data. 

In February, the state brokered an agreement with Amazon, Apple, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, and Research in Motion to give consumers an opportunity to review an app's privacy policy before they download the app rather than after. In June, Facebook agreed to do so as well.

Although specific companies receiving the letters were not named, media reports have identified some of the larger ones as United Airlines, Delta, and OpenTable. Earlier this month, Harris used her Twitter account, @KamalaHarris, to chide United Airlines: “Fabulous app, @United Airlines, but where is your app's #privacy policy?”  The company has responded by pointing customers to a privacy policy it has posted online.

In March, the Federal Trade Commission on March 26 released its long-anticipated privacy report, giving Corporate America a framework of acceptable practices around the collection of consumer data.It followed the White House's  “Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights,” a blueprint for how companies should strengthen consumers' online privacy protections.