Facebook has agreed to give people advance warning if its mobile applications pull personal information from mobile phones and tablet computers, reports AP.

With this Facebook has become the seventh company to do so. The other six companies are Apple Inc., Google Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corp., Research in Motion Ltd. and Hewlett Packard Co.

California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris said Friday that the agreement includes Facebook's own applications, as well as those made by third parties in its recently launched App Center.

All apps in Facebook's new App Center are required to have written privacy policies that shed light on what information the app collects and shares, according to an agreement that Harris reached last week with the giant social network.

Facebook says it incorporated the principles of the privacy agreement when it was designing its App Center.

According to Houston Chronicle, Harris does not have the authority to write new rules for mobile apps. Instead, she's broadly interpreting a 2004 state law that requires "online services" that collect personal information from consumers to have privacy policies.

In February, her office brokered a deal with six of the largest companies running mobile app stores. Under the deal, Apple, Google, Amazon.com, Microsoft, Research In Motion and Hewlett Packard Co. agreed to give apps the ability to conspicuously post clear and complete information on how they collect, use and share consumer data.

According to Los Angeles Times, Privacy and consumer advocates say that voluntary agreements are not a substitute for comprehensive digital privacy legislation that would give consumers greater insight into and control over what happens to their data. But all efforts to pass federal legislation have stalled.

Justin Brookman, director of consumer privacy at the Center for Democracy & Technology, said his organization supports efforts from California and the White House. But, he said, "at the end of the day, I don't think it goes far enough."