The Federal Trade Commission is concerned that mobile app developers aren’t doing enough to protect children’s privacy. “While we think most companies have the best intentions when it comes to protecting kids’ privacy, we haven’t seen any progress when it comes to making sure parents have the information they need to make informed choices about apps for their kids. In fact, our study shows that kids’ apps siphon an alarming amount of information from mobile devices without disclosing this fact to parents,” said FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz.
He added, “All of the companies in the mobile app space, especially the gatekeepers of the app stores, need to do a better job. We’ll do another survey in the future and we will expect to see improvement.”
According to the FTC, most mobile apps don’t disclose what personal information they collect. The agency plans several investigations to see if mobile development firms are violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act or the Federal Trade Commission Act.
