Communications of the ACM
60% of School Apps Are Sharing Kids' Data with 3rd Parties
A new report by tech-focused nonprofit Me2B Alliance found the majority of school utility apps were sharing some amount of student data with third-party marketing companies.
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A study by technology-focused nonprofit Me2B Alliance analyzed 73 "utility" apps for school districts and found that about 60% share some student data with third-party marketing companies.
These apps are downloaded by students and parents to review school calendars or bus schedules, among other things.
The data shared includes the student's location, their contact list, and their phone's mobile ad identifiers.
The researchers found 486 software development kits (SDKs), small libraries of code that help monetize the apps by sharing data with third-party app networks, across the 73 apps.
About two-thirds of the SDKs were owned and operated by Facebook or Google, and the rest shared data with lesser-known third parties that shared data with dozens, if not hundreds, of other lesser-known third parties.
From Gizmodo
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