© rosasto - Fotolia.com
As mobile app makers track children’s online movements, the Federal Trade Commission has a message for them: we’re watching you, too.
Earlier this week the agency released a report [PDF] citing companies for “disappointing” efforts to inform parents about how children’s data is collected, following a review of 400 smartphone and tablet apps sold in the Apple and Google Play app stores.
“Indeed, most apps failed to provide any information about the data collected through the app, let alone the type of data collected, the purpose of the collection, and who would obtain access to that data,” the report states. “Even more troubling, the results showed that many of the apps shared certain information—such as device ID, geolocation, or phone number—without disclosing that fact to parents.”
The FTC said it’s not only urging the mobile app industry to incorporate better privacy protections into their products, but that it is “launching multiple nonpublic investigations to determine whether certain entities in the mobile app marketplace have violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA),” or the FTC Act’s ban on unfair and deceptive trade practices, according to the report.
“The clear message to marketers is you better—quickly—review your apps,” says Linda Goldstein, a partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips who chairs the firm’s advertising, marketing, and media division.
The report said that while agency staff allowed “generous parameters” in identifying an app’s privacy disclosures, “only 20 percent (81) of the apps reviewed disclosed any information about the app’s privacy practices.”
FTC staff members also tested whether app developers, advertising networks, and analytics companies collected user-specific information such as geolocation, birth date, phone number, or a device identifier—the string of numbers or letters that uniquely identify a mobile device. The FTC found that “59 percent (235) of the 400 apps transmitted some information from a user’s mobile device back to the developer or to a third-party.”
This is the second such mobile app survey conducted by the FTC, which has focused closely on privacy this year. The agency is also expected to release updated COPPA regulations soon. Proposed changes include broader definitions of what constitutes personally identifiable information, along with stronger requirements for verifiable parental consent.
More types of apps may fall within COPPA’s reach, says Goldstein. And more big-name companies—not just the lesser-known app developers—could start feeling the heat, too. Considering “how many brands are developing their own apps as a major marketing vehicle, the potential exposure to brands now is really significant,” Goldstein says.
Goldstein says this latest report “will help support an argument that stronger rules are required to protect privacy” of children under 13 who are using apps on mobile devices.
