FTC re-slams apps for kids over privacy concerns

In February, 2012 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a report titled Mobile Apps for Kids: Current Privacy Disclosures are Disappointing (PDF) that pointed out that there was "little or no" privacy information available to parents in the Android Google Play and Apple iOS app stores prior to download and scarce data in the apps themselves or on the app vendors websites.

And on Monday, the FTC issued a follow up report, Mobile Apps for Kids Disclosures Still Not Making the Grade that complains that "despite many high-visibility efforts to increase transparency in the mobile marketplace, little or no progress has been made."

The new report noted that since the first report, "the market for mobile apps has continued to grow at an explosive rate." There are now over 700,000 apps in the Apple app store (up 40% since December 2011) and an equal number in the Google Play store, "an 80% increase since the beginning of 2012," according to the FTC.