Data Privacy: A study by data privacy services company Arraka has found that Google and Facebook have received more than half of the data collected from children’s apps. According to the study covering 60 children’s Android applications in a total of 9 categories including games, education tech, school, coding and childcare, Google tops the list, which has collected 33% data from such apps. At the same time, Facebook is at second place, which has collected 22% data.
Threat to children’s privacy
Shivangi Nadkarni, Co-Founder and CEO of Arraka, said, “On one hand, we are seeing an increasing focus on children’s privacy around the world with the implementation of many regulations since last year. On the other hand, we are seeing an alarm. It is being observed that around us, personal data of children is being destroyed without any notice and guidelines.
Small data receivers like AppsFlyer and AppLovin have been identified in this study. These two contributed about 2% of the total trackers identified – which together captured 38% of the data. Additionally, 85% of the apps surveyed had at least one “dangerous permission”, or permission to collect highly sensitive data, the misuse of which could harm children.
Who has how much access?
For example, 73% have access to stored files, 46% have access to microphone, 43% have access to camera, 38% have access to phone details, 27% have access to contacts, 23% have access to location. Was. Edtech (EdgeKush Tech apps), childcare and coding apps have obtained the highest number of such dangerous permissions. Nearly two-thirds of childcare and edtech apps have access to kids’ location, and 100% of edtech and coding apps have access to the camera. At least 80% of children’s apps had embedded analytics trackers and 54% had ad trackers. The number of trackers was highest in gaming, edtech and coding apps.
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