The Federal Trade Commission has conducted a survey, following up on a December 2012 survey, examining what information children’s app developers are collecting from users, whom they are sharing it with, and what disclosures they are providing to parents about their practices. The findings will be announced in a series of blog posts. Here is the first one.
The FTC's 2012 survey found that only 20 percent of apps had a link to a privacy policy available to parents before downloading the app. The new survey found that more than 45 percent have a direct link to their privacy policy on their app store page. For many children's apps, however, the FTC found that parents still do not have an easy way to learn about data collection and usage practices.
The findings are part of the third annual Global Privacy Enforcement Network (GPEN) privacy sweep. GPEN is a network of privacy enforcement authorities from around the world that promotes information sharing and international assistance.
