Below: Israel wants the controversial spyware firm NSO removed from a U.S. export ban, and abortion providers are racing to protect their data ahead of a Roe v. Wade decision.
To get around the law, app makers claim their clearly kid-friendly products aren’t aimed at kids
Apps clearly designed to entertain children are also gathering their data at an alarming scale — violating the spirit of the law meant to maintain children’s privacy and creating concern about kids’ safety online.
The scale is remarkable. More than two-thirds of the 1,000 most popular iPhone apps directed at children are scooping up kids’ information for advertising purposes — often including their location and other identifying information, The Post’s tech columnist Geoffrey A. Fowler reports this morning.
About 79 percent of Android apps directed at children are doing the same thing. The data was shared exclusively with Geoffrey by the fraud and compliance software company Pixalate.
The findings demonstrate how children are routinely subjected to the same privacy and cybersecurity perils as adults when they go online — even though they have far less understanding of the dangers.
They also show how app makers routinely exploit a major loophole in the main law meant to protect children online — the 1998 Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
“[App makers] are placing their profits over the mental health and social well-being of every child in America, because that’s the power they have today,” Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), an original sponsor of the child protection bill, told Geoffrey.
The loophole exploited by app…
