Thursday, April 19, 2018

Google Play Store Apps Violating Data-Privacy Law


According to a study published by researchers affiliated with the International Computer Science Institute, thousands of free apps available in the Google Play store are potentially violating a major federal data-privacy law intended to protect children from online tracking. According to research, more than half of thousands of Android apps in the “Designed for Families” section of the Google Play store potentially violated COPPA, or the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. The study also examines how efforts by Google to limit tracking through the use of a resettable advertising ID has had little success.

Reyes, I., Wijesekera, P., Reardon, J., Bar On, A. E., Razaghpanah, A., Vallina-Rodriguez, N., & Egelman, S. (2018). “Won’t somebody think of the children?” Examining COPPA compliance at scale. Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies, 3, 63-83. https://petsymposium.org/2018/files/papers/issue3/popets-2018-0021.pdf



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