The FTC has just released some new information about the privacy disclosures used in children’s apps. This was a major issue in the past with the FTC reporting that only 20% of app makers were in compliance with having a disclosure easily accessible from the app and sales page. Today, however, the FTC found that approximately 45% of these same apps include the direct link to privacy policies that they require.
Kristin Cohen and Christina Yeung from the FTC wrote that, “for many kids’ apps parents still don’t have an easy way to learn about their data collection and usage policies.” This is where the problem comes in. The FTC wants parents to be able to easily understand what type of information is collected about their children, and how that information is being used.
While the most recent report does show significant improvement, there is certainly a long way to go. The fact that more than half of apps focused on children are still not providing an easy to access privacy policy should be a concern for all parents.
The FTC completed the research by looking at 364 different kid’s apps on both the Google Play and the Apple App store.
The results found that 164 of the apps reviewed had direct links to the privacy policies. In addition to that, 38 had privacy policies that were there, but in ‘hard to find’ places.
There is no indication that the FTC is going to attempt to crack down on this issue anytime soon though. In situations like this the FTC often moves slowly in attempting to issue any fines or other punishments. It seems likely, however, that this will come at some point so it is in the best interest of anyone who is creating children’s apps, or marketing them, to make sure they have the privacy policies in the proper places.
