FTC probes mobile apps firms over child privacy concerns The agency did not identify the companies in its private investigations. As early as this month, the FTC plans to consider proposals to strengthen child online privacy laws to clarify limits on mobile phone technology for tracking children. In its report, "Mobile Apps for Kids: Disclosures Still Not Making the Grade," the FTC found that a majority of 400 kid-oriented apps downloaded and tested by federal officials failed to notify users that the apps were collecting data and how that information was being used. The FTC said that 60 percent of the apps tested on iTunes and Google Play shared data about a user's mobile device with other app developers and third parties. "Our study shows that kids" apps siphon an alarming amount of information from mobile devices without disclosing this fact to parents," FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said in a statement. He said Apple and Google should be scrutinized as heavily as the app developers when it comes to protecting children's privacy. "All the companies in the mobile app space, especially the gatekeepers of the app stores, need to do a better job," Leibowitz said. The FTC's survey of apps, done over the summer, was part of a years-long look into how mobile technology is affecting children as young as toddlers, who are exposed to more screens than ever. Of particular concern for mobile devices is the collection of a user's device ID, a string of letters and numbers that uniquely identifies each mobile device. The FTC is considering updating laws that would define unique IDs as personal information, so that companies would have to gain permission from parents before collecting and sharing that data. The concern is that a mobile device's unique ID could be shared among many third parties, including ad networks and data analytics firms looking to create profiles on Internet users. A child's use of multiple apps could be pieced together through these IDs, allowing companies to create comprehensive portraits of children ages 12 and younger. "Concerns about the creation of detailed profiles based on device IDs become especially important where, as staff found, a small number of companies collect device IDs and other user information through a vast network of mobile apps," the FTC report said. As mobile devices saturate homes and schools, children for the first time have become easy targets for behavioral advertising, public interest groups say. Federal regulators have set time limits on advertising to children via television, but there are no such rules for online ads. In its survey, the FTC said that six out of 10 apps contained advertising but that the vast majority of apps did not disclose that to users before downloading. On Monday, the Center for Digital Democracy, a public interest group, highlighted the problem of the unregulated apps market in a complained filed with the FTC. In the filing, privacy groups accused Mobbles, a virtual pet-sharing site, of violating child privacy laws by collecting e-mails, addresses, location and other sensitive information about kids without getting permission from parents and without explaining its practices to users. Mobbles, which debuted in May, is rated for ages 4 and older on Apple devices and is also promoted to a wide audience on Android phones. It is backed by U.S. Venture Partners investors in Silicon Valley and has catapulted to one of the top downloads for kids.