Children’s privacy at risk from mobile phone apps

THE majority of mobile phone apps put children’s privacy at risk, research has warned. Analysis of 5,855 apps in the Google Play Store found 57 per cent may be violating US privacy laws protecting children online.

Researchers at the University of Berkeley, California, said each of the apps, which are aimed at children and are mostly free, could be used by millions of people worldwide.

The games include Disney’s Where’s My Water? and Gameloft’s Minion Rush, as well as Duolingo, a language learning app.

The study found 28 per cent of the ones they analysed “accessed confidential data protected by Android permissions; nearly threequarters “transmitted confidential data over the internet”; and 4.8 per cent presented “clear violations when apps share location or contact information without consent”.

Four in 10 of the apps also shared personal information “without applying reasonable security measures”, according to the Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies paper.

Dr Narseo Vallina-rodriguez, the study co-author, said: “Based on our data, it is not clear that industry selfregulation has resulted in higher privacy standards; some of our data suggests the opposite.” A Google spokesman said: “We’re taking the researchers’ report very seriously and looking into their findings.”