This project has determined that about half of websites and mobile apps share this personal info.
An international project focused on online and mobile security has now released the results of an analysis that it conducted on 1,494 apps and websites around the globe, and they determined that over half are collecting and sharing the personal information of children.
This issue may be very worrisome to parents who are increasingly allowing their children to use mobile apps.
In fact, among the apps and websites that were analyzed by the mobile security project, 67 percent were collecting the personal information of children. Moreover, 50 percent of the analyzed sites and applications were sharing the personal information that they collected from children with other organizations. The project was taken on by the Global Privacy Enforcement Network (GPEN). This analysis was conducted as a part of a broader annual privacy sweep and the numbers that they found with regards to what children were able to share with websites and apps were insightful.
This could represent a major mobile security issue of which parents had been previously unaware.
Among the key findings of the analysis by the GPEN were the following:
• 71 percent provided no opportunity for parents or children to delete account information
• 67 percent of sites and mobile apps were collecting personal information from kids
• 58 percent presented the opportunity for a child to be redirected to another website
• 32 percent had implemented effective controls to restrict personal information collection from kids
• 50 percent shared with third parties the personal information collected from children
• 24 percent encouraged the involvement of parents
• 23 percent contained features that allowed for the uploading of pictures or videos
• 22 percent presented an opportunity for a child to enter his or her telephone number
The GPEN has opted not to publish the list of sites and apps that were studied in this mobile security analysis. That said, it has been underscored, the majority of sites and apps collect and share this information for the purpose of targeted advertising and not for dubious reasons. Equally, the high importance of teaching children about online and mobile privacy was also stressed.
Even though consumers continue to worry that their private data is not entirely safe, they’re still shopping on smartphones.
The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has released the result of a recent study and data analysis that has revealed that there is a growing number of people who are looking to mobile commerce as a part of their overall shopping process, regardless of the fact that worries about privacy remain high.
The research showed that 7 out of 10 people will use their smartphones for information while shopping.
While not all of those activities involve actually making a purchase, these mobile commerce behaviors remain quite important to the process that will eventually lead consumers to a purchase decision. For instance, the CEA found that about 70 percent of mobile device using shoppers will conduct an internet search using that smartphone in order to learn more information about a product while shopping.
Over half of shoppers were found to have preferred mobile commerce for learning about products while shopping.
That 58 percent said that looking something up on a smartphone or tablet was preferable to speaking to an employee while in store. This was particularly true among male shoppers as well as among those between the ages of 25 and 44.
The CES report also pointed out that even though consumers were using m-commerce tools despite the fact that about 61 percent of them also expressed concerns about privacy, and 58 percent were worried about security when using their smartphones while they shopped inside a brick and mortar store.
The CEA directory of industry and analysis, Steve Koenig, said that “Quick and reliable access to product information, availability and comparisons are the driving forces behind this trend.” He also added that “Mobile is undoubtedly changing the way consumers shop, but also likely redefining the role of salespeople at retail.”
The report, entitled “Managing the Consumerization of IT: Mobile Access for the BYOD World,” showed the following additional key mobile commerce usage findings:
• 70 percent of consumers use smartphones to find product information as they shop.
• 69 percent use their devices for a general search online while shopping.
• 52 percent would visit a website specific to the store while shopping.
• 47 percent would visit an app specific to the store while they shopped.
• 46 percent would visit a website specific to a manufacturer while shopping.
