London, Dec. 02, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Pixalate, the global market-leading ad fraud protection, privacy, and compliance analytics platform, today released the Q3 2024 Google Play Store ‘Teacher Approved’ Apps Privacy Risks & Data Sharing Insights report.
The report examines the extent to which personal information is accessed and shared by apps in the “Teacher Approved” program as well as close look at apps in the program that apparently fail to seek Verifiable Parental Consent (VPC) but still share personal information in the advertising bid stream.
To compile this research, Pixalate’s data science team analyzed 9,816 apps in the Google Play Store with the “Teacher Approved” badge as of Q3 2024. Pixalate’s data science team also analyzed programmatic advertising impressions on these apps to determine if certain data points – such as IP address and geolocation information – were shared with advertisers via the advertising bid stream during Q3 2024. Pixalate’s Trust & Safety Advisory Board also conducted a manual review of 20 mobile apps in the ‘Teacher Approved’ program between March-June 2024 to analyze whether the apps seek VPC.
Key Findings:
- Lack of Parental Consent: 23+ million user ratings across “Teacher Approved” apps that do not obtain Verifiable Parental Consent (VPC)** but still share location or IP address data in the ad bid stream (per Pixalate’s data) – an apparent violation of COPPA, 16 CFR 312
- Scale of Potential Risks: 85+ million user ratings on “Teacher Approved’” apps with app-ads.txt files – meaning the apps are enabled for programmatic ads, including targeted ads
- Transmission of Location Data: 531+ million downloads across 534 “Teacher Approved” apps that transmit location data in the programmatic advertising bid stream*, per Pixalate’s data
- ‘Sensitive’ Information Requests: 37+ million user ratings across 1,276 “Teacher Approved” apps that request access to personal information via permissions*, per Pixalate’s data
Google’s “Teacher Approved” mobile app program is designed to help parents “find high-quality apps for kids,” according to Google. While the majority of these “Teacher Approved” mobile apps may be processing users’ personal information in compliance with global privacy laws and regulations, this report aims to emphasize the span of data collection practices actively undertaken by mobile apps generally tailored for child-user experiences.
* Pixalate is sharing these statistics mainly to highlight the scale at which personal information is accessed and shared by apps that are certified as ‘Teacher Approved’ on the Google Play Store.
** Between March-June 2024, Pixalate’s Trust & Safety Advisory Board conducted a manual review of 20 mobile apps in the ‘Teacher Approved’ program to analyze whether the apps seek VPC.
Download the report
Download Pixalate’s Q3 2024 Google Play Store ‘Teacher Approved’ Apps Privacy Risk Analysis report.
About Pixalate
Pixalate is a global platform specializing in privacy compliance, ad fraud prevention, and digital ad supply chain data intelligence. Founded in 2012, Pixalate is trusted by regulators, data researchers, advertisers, publishers, ad tech platforms, and financial analysts across the Connected TV (CTV), mobile app, and website ecosystems. Pixalate is accredited by the MRC for the detection and filtration of Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT). pixalate.com
Disclaimer
The content of this press release, and the Google Play Store ‘Teacher Approved’ Apps Privacy Risks & Data Sharing Insights report (the Report), reflect Pixalate’s opinions with respect to factors that Pixalate believes may be useful to the digital media industry. Pixalate’s opinions are just that, opinions, which means that they are neither facts nor guarantees. Pixalate is sharing this data not to impugn the standing or reputation of any entity, person or app, but, instead, to report findings and trends pertaining to programmatic advertising activity in the time period studied.
