Tech Giants Charged with Tracking Children

Tech Giants Charged with Tracking Children: New Mexico’s attorney general, Hector Balderas, who recently announced a lawsuit, filed against the Google, Twitter, Tiny Lab Productions, MoPub, AerServ, InModi PTE, AppLovin and IronSource, on allegation that around 100 gaming applications that are targeting the children which do contain illegal tracking software.

The apps, which are designed by Tiny Lab Productions, which are marketed in the Google Play Store and that is reported to college the personal information from children aged 13 without even acquiring the parent consent. Collecting this sort of data is not only the defendants but also whoever they sell the data to the ability to track and profile the children who can then be targeted for marketing purpose.

“These apps can track where the children live, play, and go to school with incredible precision,” said Balderas. “There multi-million-dollar tech companies partnering with the app developers are taking the advantages of New Mexican children, and the unacceptable risk of the data breach and access from third parties who seek to exploit and harm our children will not be tolerated in New Mexico.”

In total these gaming apps are 91 which are developed by Tiny Lab. Of all the apps, only around five have not been the part of Google’s Designed for Families (DFF) program. Some of these apps includes: Angry Bunny Race: Jungle Road, Arctic Roads: Car Racing Game, DexLand, Dragon Fight: Boss Shooting Game, Dragon Panda Racing, Fun Kid Racing, Magic ElF Fantasy Forest Run and Pet Friends Park Racing.

As the children when get more access to the internet both at home and at the school the games they downloaded and played can bring different types of risks to them.

“Parents should be aware of these risks and should know how to protect their children before purchasing an internet connected device for their children. Parents should be extremely selective of the apps they choose for their children.” Balderas’s office wrote in a press release.

In addition to all the listing of these 91 apps in Google Play Store, the AG’s office has successfully included a six pages with instructions on how to limit the ad tracking across the multiple devices.