In February 2012, the FTC issued a report which focused on mobile apps available for children. The FTC found that there was lack of information available to parents prior to downloading mobile apps regarding the data collection and sharing practices of the apps. It was not clear from the description of the apps on the App Store whether the developers collected any data, and if yes, what type of data was collected and what was the purpose of the collection. This report, along with the recent settlement of the FTC’s first COPPA enforcement action against a mobile app developer and the FTC’s notice of upcoming amendment to COPPA, are a “warning call” to the industry that developers must provide greater transparency about data collection practices. According to the report, the FTC staff will conduct additional review of mobile apps for children to determine whether there are any COPPA violations and whether enforcement is appropriate.
The full report is available here: http://1.usa.gov/wuktOS