Apple, Android Apps Must Provide More Child Data, FTC Says

[sunnyd]

Story : http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-16/apple-android-apps-must-provide-more-ch

Makers and sellers of mobile applications through Apple Inc. Apple Store and Google Inc. Android Market must improve disclosures to parents about personal information collected about their children, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said.

The FTC issued the recommendations today in a report based on a survey of mobile applications for children.

“Right now, it is almost impossible to figure out which apps collect data and what they do with it,” FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said in a statement. Companies must “provide easily accessible, basic information, so that parents can make informed decisions about the apps their kids use,” he said.

As underage smartphone users increasingly download mobile applications, their parents lack information about what kind of data is being collected about their children and what it’s being used for, the FTC said in the report.

[girlonbits]

as a mom of a one-year-old who has not yet begun to disseminate such info to the world, I would whole-heartedly agree.