Privacy Advocates Target Google’s ,”Teacher approved.” Apps

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, Two advocacy groups on have called on the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate whether apps that Google’s Play Store labels as “Teacher approved” are unlawfully collecting personal data without parental consent to target ads at children.

The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) and the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD), which have helped spur FTC action before, cited among other evidence reports from three separate research groups since last June that concluded Play Store apps aimed at children quietly transmitted data about individual users to other companies.

Google’s Play Store is the default option for downloading apps on nearly every Android smartphone and tablet in the United States. To address concerns from parents about kid-safe apps, Google markets some as meant for families and even “Teacher approved.”