Pixalate study: of the 1,000 most popular apps used by children, 67% in Apple's App Store and 76% in the Google Play Store send the ad industry location data
Apple and Google just look the other way. Here's how we stop it. — Imagine if a stranger parked in front of a child's bedroom window to peep inside. Tweets: @geoffreyfowler , @gregbensinger , @emma_leik , @senmarkey , @drewharwell , @joseph_marks_ , and @commonsense Tweets: Geoffrey A. Fowler / @geoffreyfowler : New @washingtonpost by me: Apps are spying on our kids at a massive scale. 2/3 of the most-popular apps likely used by kids send their personal data out to the ad industry. Two-thirds! What are Apple & Google doing about it? Looking the other way. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twitter.com/... @gregbensinger : Mgmt at 1/3 of apps for kids are now wondering why they aren't fully monetizing https://twitter.com/... Emma / @emma_leik : 🧵 The fact that by the time a child reaches age 13, online advertising firms hold an average of 72 MILLION data points about them should be of concern to parents, educators, advocates, children, policymakers tech founders/maintainers alike. But wait. There's more. https://twitter.com/... Ed Markey / @senmarkey : Big Tech is surveilling children and teens online and knowingly harming their mental health, all to turn a profit. I'm determined to stop these companies and call on Congress to pass my bill to close the loophole that powerful platforms exploit to track young people. https://twitter.com/... Drew Harwell / @drewharwell : More than 2/3 of the top 1,000 apps used by kids send their personal information to advertisers, @geoffreyfowler says: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... Follows our research last month that showed 90% of remote-learning apps doing the same: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ .... Are we OK with this? Joseph Marks / @joseph_marks_ : Analysis | App makers are scooping up kids' data with few real checks. Today's Cybersecurity 202 w/ @aaronjschaffer https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... @commonsense : Some of the most popular game apps grab kids' info and then sell it to companies that can track their interests. Legislation like COPPA 2.0 and #CAKidsCode could shift #privacy concerns off the shoulders of busy parents. @washingtonpost @geoffreyfowler https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Context & Ripple Effects
Pixalate's audit of the 1,000 most popular apps used by children puts numbers on a problem regulators have circled for years: 67% of those apps in Apple's App Store and 76% in Google Play ship location data to the ad industry, with Sen. Ed Markey responding by pressing Congress to pass his bill closing the loophole platforms exploit to track young people.
The finding lands on well-worn ground — a 2018 lawsuit already accused Google's and Twitter's ad businesses of violating children's privacy law over game-app tracking (that suit traced how game apps harvest kids' data), and reporting since COPPA's weakening has documented analytics SDKs funneling sensitive user data to ad platforms like Facebook. The FTC's later push for opt-in targeted ads for under-13s shows where enforcement pressure is heading.
First-order effects
- Apple and Google face direct reputational and regulatory exposure as gatekeepers whose app stores certify children's apps that transmit location data at scale, undercutting their privacy positioning.
Second-order effects
- App developers serving young audiences face pressure to audit third-party SDKs and cut ad-network data flows, shifting demand toward kid-safe monetization alternatives; ad-tech intermediaries risk losing inventory if platforms tighten rules.
Third-order effects
- If Markey's legislative push and the FTC's opt-in proposal gain traction, COPPA-era rules get rewritten around app-store gatekeeping and SDK data flows rather than individual websites — making Apple and Google the enforcement chokepoints for children's privacy.
The trend: Children's app privacy is moving from self-regulated SDK data flows toward statutory and platform-enforced limits, with app-store gatekeepers increasingly held accountable for what the apps they distribute collect.