Pressures coming from U.S. attorney generals compelled six leading tech companies to provide more information to users who may be compromising their privacy whenever they download apps into their mobile devices.

Speaking at a press briefing held Wednesday in San Francisco, California, Attorney General Kamala D. Harris revealed that six global firms have agreed to implement greater privacy measures along with their online app services.

Apple and Google both signed the deal, Harris said, with latter confirming that the agreement will allow Android users to exercise "more ways to make informed decisions when it comes to their privacy."

Reuters reported that Apple confirmed its participation with the privacy pact but declined to offer more details.

Other firms which signed the document include Microsoft, Research in Motion, and Hewlett-Packard, Ms Harris said.

The agreement requires all signatories "to disclose how they use private data before an app may be downloaded," Ms Harris told Reuters.

Prior to the deal, Ms lamented that confusion governed the privacy concerns that emerged when mobile apps usage grew with unprecedented speed.

The California state government has estimated the mobile application market to generate some $6.8 billion this year, with projections that global users will access and purchase about 98 billion mobile apps by 2015.

That would lead to $25 billion gross income for industry players, Ms Harris noted, with the market presently dominated by Apple and Google.

However, consumer privacy appears to have been relegated to the backseat as tech firms and developers were overwhelmed by the sudden explosion of the new industry, an offshoot of the hit mobile gadgets created by Apple and later on by its rivals.

And as the market further expands, "most mobile apps make no effort to inform users about how personal information is used," Ms Harris noted.

"The consumer should be informed of what they are giving up," she added.

Implementation of the new deal will not be dictated by a specific timeline for now, Ms Harris said, but representatives of the tech firms will be summoned by the California after six months to assess the program's progress.

And in the event that the privacy issues were again neglected by tech firms and developers, Ms Harris warned that the state government will not hesitate to use its legal options.

"We can sue and we will sue ... (and I hoped the industry would act) in good faith," Ms Harris told Reuters.

Online privacy issues again gained notice with Google's recent decision of consolidating the privacy policy surrounding its online services, which experts said would allow the internet giant to more access to personal information of millions of users.

Ms Harris, along with other attorney generals across the United States sent Google their collective concern about the new policy while the European Union called on the tech giant to suspend its implementation, Reuters wrote.