Study Finds Over 3,300 Android Apps Have Been Tracking Kids

Due to the fact that sometimes app permissions can be a bit technical and because for the average user, they don’t know how the app was programmed and why it might need permission to access certain features of our phones. However because sometimes permissions are needed for the app to function, we usually grant it.

This has led to problems such as tracking of our data and location sometimes without our knowledge, which is what researchers have recently discovered. According to a study, researchers have found that over 3,300 apps designed for Android have been improperly collecting data on children which could potentially violate US COPPA law which limits data collection for kids under the age of 13.

For example during the course of their researcher, the researchers found that 281 of them collected contact and/or location data without asking for a parent’s permission. About 1,100 shared identifying information with third-parties, while over 2,000 apps appeared to violate Google’s terms of service that forbids apps from sharing said identifiable information to the same destination as Android Advertising ID.

Some of these violations are questionable and could potentially be argued for, but whether or not these developers will get in trouble is up to bodies like the FTC to decide.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Cellphones, General
Tags: Android, Apps, Privacy