Privacy in Popular Children’s Mobile Applications: A Network Traffic Analysis

Children increasingly download and use mobile applications from marketplaces such as Apple’s App Store or the Google Play Store. One would expect that applications intended for children are free of third-party analytics, or at least make sure parents give their consent for collecting personal data from children. In this study, we performed an in-depth technical analysis of a representative snapshot of 15 applications from Google Play Store aimed at children (age group classifications 0–5, 6–8 and 9–12). We recorded the network traffic of these applications and compared it to the privacy policies of the applications. Across the applications, a significant number (13/15) were delivering more information about the users to various third parties than what was admitted in the respective privacy policies. We elaborate on details regarding the observed network traffic, and discuss implications of these findings on strategies for preserving user privacy, particularly for sensitive audiences such as children.