ICO to Monitor Privacy Compliance of Mobile Games for Kids
The U.K. ICO will begin monitoring 10 popular mobile games played by children, it said Monday. The review will assess the games' compliance with default privacy settings, their geolocation controls and their targeted advertising practices, as well as any other privacy issues identified.
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“Our early review suggests that many mobile games’ design features can be especially intrusive, raising important questions about how these games are designed and experienced, and their adherence to the ICO’s Children’s code standards," said Information Commissioner John Edwards.
New ICO research showed 84% of parents worry about their kids' potential exposure to strangers and/or harmful content through mobile games, the watchdog said. Three in four parents also said they're concerned about their children sharing personal data and about data collection by game companies for serving ads.
One-third of respondents said their kids have stopped using mobile games because of parental concerns about what data the game collected and how it was used, the ICO said.
The focus on mobile games is part of the office's children's code strategy, which aims to boost privacy standards across social media and video-sharing platforms, it noted, adding that its interventions have caused these platforms to change their data protection practices.