American schools' phone apps send children's info to ad networks, analytics firms

the register ^

[algore]

The majority of Android and iOS apps created for US public and private schools send student data to assorted third parties, researchers have found, calling into question privacy commitments from Apple and Google as app store stewards.

The Me2B Alliance, a non-profit technology policy group, examined a random sample of 73 mobile applications used in 38 different schools across 14 US states and found 60 per cent were transmitting student data.

Analytics SDKs, which collect behavioral data about app usage, are considered high risk because of the potential for fingerprinting, data abuse, and data transit to partners. Advertising SDKs are deemed high risk because they may gather unique identifiers and may be ranked very high risk if they're linked to an advertising platform, like Google's DoubleClick, or if they appear in state data broker registries, like AdColony and InMobi.

The study does not address whether these apps comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), which governs how data for children under 13 should be handled. Nor does it address other privacy compliance questions,

[algore]

As Sun Microsystems chief executive Scott McNealy said nearly 15 years ago, “You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it.”

As unpopular as that viewpoint was at the time, McNealy was right. Dead right. I actually think that’s what upset all the consumer privacy advocates and watchdog groups back in 1999. That the guy had the guts to speak the truth.

And you know what? After all these years, people still don’t get it. We did this to ourselves.

[The Antiyuppie]

In a less crooked country (like those socialist countries in Europe!), all the officers of these companies would be in genpop.

[wildcard_redneck]

As Sun Microsystems chief executive Scott McNealy said nearly 15 years ago, “You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it.”

Americans have no privacy now because we have surrendered to the assault on our God-given, natural rights. While technology lends itself to massive invasions of privacy it does not have to be that way. East Germany did not have computers in the Internet yet they managed to create a surveillance state that knew everything about everybody.

We are being abused only because we have allowed it. I am sure that when Gutenberg first invented the printing press that there were aristocrats in government telling Europeans that end of their privacy was due to printed books. All lies.

What America needs to do is pass tough laws protecting privacy along with penalties harsh enough to stop the abuse. If someone had shot Scott McNealy n the face after his totalitarian proclamation we would all be better off.

[goodnesswins]

Movie, Lives of Others comes to mind. Rush told people to watch it years ago.

[ptsal]

Bkmk

[House Atreides]

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