Payment for apps does not secure your children’s private data

You cannot be sure whether data is being collected from third parties, even if you pay for your apps. This is shown by a new analysis from the Danish Agency for Digitalization.

The Danish Agency for Digitalization has analyzed 20 popular learning apps, available on both Android and iOS versions for children and teenagers that are paid for.

The investigation reveals that data is collected from third-party services for marketing or statistics in just under half (47.5%) of the analyzed apps.

The study also shows that none of the analyzed apps have a consent solution, such as a cookie banner, which should inform users about how their data is being used and allow them to reject this use.

Pay before you download

The Danish Agency for Digitalization has examined apps where payment is required before downloading, as well as apps where you can download for free and then pay for full access with either a one-time payment or a subscription.

In general, a smaller amount of data is collected from third-party services in the apps that are paid for before download. A significant 94% of the data collected for marketing purposes was from apps that were paid for after download.

For example, if you pay for a subscription with DuoLingo, you may find yourself in a situation where data about you is still being collected from third-party services in order to tailor advertisements specifically to you.

Overall, the data collection picture appears less extensive than what was reported in the Danish Agency for Digitalization’s March 2024 report, ‘What does a free mobile game cost?’. Data for statistics and marketing were collected from third parties in all 24 mobile games analyzed.

Based on the results presented in the report, the Danish Agency for Digitalization has initiated supervision of the Danish apps included in the analysis.Knæk Læsekoden