Google, Facebook skim most data from apps for kids: study

Google and Facebook receive more than half of all data collected from children’s apps, a study by data privacy services company Arrka has found.

Google is the leading recipient, collecting 33% of the data collected from such apps, followed by Facebook at 22%, as per the study that covered 60 children’s Android applications across nine categories including games, edtech, school, coding, and childcare.

“On one hand, we have been seeing the increased focus on children’s privacy worldwide with several regulations kicking in over the last year. On the other, we have been seeing – with alarm – the kind of personal data of children being processed around us, without any guardrails per se,” said Shivangi Nadkarni, cofounder and CEO of Arrka.