Apple and Google expose children to data privacy breaches through misleading app age ratings
Hundreds of the most popular apps are being advertised with misleading age-ratings in Apple and Google’s app stores, leaving children in “the firing line” of targeted ads and unlawful data processing.
According to campaign groups, Good Law Project and 5Rights Foundation, who have now jointly submitted a formal complaint to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the tech giants are raking in huge profits by breaching consumer and data protection law.
The campaign groups analysed the highest rated apps in terms of generated revenue and found that hundreds display a much lower age rating in the relevant app store than what is required by the app’s own terms and conditions.
Candy Crush Saga, which has generated billions in revenue from in-game purchases, is marked Pegi 3 in Google Play and 4+ in Apple’s app store. However, the app’s terms and conditions stipulate that users must be at least 13 years old to play.
Many of these apps impose these higher age ratings in their terms and conditions. This reflects their monetisation strategies that depend on in-app purchases and data processing, both of which require appropriate adult consent.
App stores can receive up to 30% commission from downloads of these apps and additional in-game content.
In an official complaint to the CMA, Good Law Project and 5Rights have now urged the regulator to sanction Apple and Google and compel them to immediately apply appropriate age guidance for all apps in their respective stores.
After being contacted by the Information Commissioner’s Office about the issue, the tech giants initially refused to do so.
Duncan McCann, Good Law Project’s Tech and Data Policy Lead and a complainant, said:
“Our children are being left in the firing line of targeted ads and unlawful data processing by Apple and Google’s willfully irresponsible and misleading use of age ratings in their app stores.
These tech giants are refusing to do the right thing and act, simply because it is so lucrative not to do so. It’s now time for the regulator to put its foot down.”
Leanda Barrington-Leach, Executive Director of 5Rights Foundation, said:
“It is unfathomable how Apple and Google can so blatantly mislead consumers and make millions off the exploitation of children in plain sight.
Promoting games such as Candy Crush and White Out Survival, which are highly addictive and contain features such as in-app purchases, to children as young as 4 is legally and morally unacceptable.
These gatekeepers’ unwillingness to do something as simple as aligning app store age ratings to the eligibility terms set by providers reflects an arrogance and disregard for children’s rights and wellbeing all too common in the tech sector. It is high time for them to be held accountable for their public commitments and legal obligations.”