Apps tracking kids

Check out PrivacyGrade.org, which analyzed over 1 million applications and ranked them based on how the extent of an application's collection of information about the user matched up with the user's expectations.

A key finding from the site, reports CNN Money, is that some of the worst apps in terms of privacy are apps aimed at kids. Some examples cited by CNN:

My Talking Tom is a game where you raise a virtual cat. The gimmick: You speak to him, and he repeats everything you say. But the app takes your voice recordings, and shares that data with advertisers. And if you connect your phone to a computer, it can delete or modify files on that computer — for a reason CMU researchers can't yet figure out.

Fruit Ninja is a game of sword-wielding, vegetarian carnage. But the app insists on knowing your precise location, carrier and phone number — sharing that with advertisers.

Also on the naughty list: The Holy Bible. It surreptitiously grabs your contact list, phone call history, phone number, carrier and tracks your location. Bible for Kids isn't much better: It got a C, because it follows children's movements.

Some versions of the popular Angry Birds game also track your location and find your social media accounts, the CNN story notes.

Read the whole story here.

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