Here’s how game apps collect data on children
Before Kim Slingerland downloaded the “Fun Kid Racing” app for her then-5year-old son, Shane, she checked to make sure it was in the family section of the Google Play store and rated as age-appropriate. The game, which lets children race cartoon cars with animal drivers, has been downloaded millions of times.
Until last month, the app also shared users’ data, sometimes including the precise location of devices, with more than a half-dozen advertising and online tracking companies. On Tuesday evening, New Mexico’s attorney general filed a lawsuit claiming that the maker of “Fun Kid Racing” had violated a federal children’s privacy law through dozens of Android apps that shared children’s data.
“I don’t think it’s right,” said Slingerland, a mother of three in Alberta, Canada. “I don’t think that’s any of their business, location or anything like that.”
The suit accuses the app-maker, Tiny Lab Productions, along with online ad businesses run by Google, Twitter and three other companies, of flouting a law intended to prevent the personal data of children under 13 from falling into the hands of predators, hackers and manipulative marketers. The suit also contends that Google misled consumers by including the apps in the family section of its store.
An analysis by The New York Times found that children’s apps by other developers were also collecting data. The review of 20 children’s apps — 10 each on Google Android and Apple IOS — found examples on both platforms that sent data to tracking companies, potentially violating children’s privacy law; the IOS apps sent less data overall.
These findings are consistent with those published this spring by academic researchers who analyzed nearly 6,000 free children’s Android apps. They reported that more than half of the apps, including those by Tiny Lab, shared details with outside companies in ways that may have violated the law.
Although federal law does not provide