According to Pixalate’s research, 50% of apps in the Google Play Store “Teacher Approved” program are enabled for programmatic advertising, including targeted advertising; There are 531+ million downloads of “Teacher Approved” Google Play Store apps that transmit user location data in the programmatic advertising bid stream
LONDON, December 2, 2024 – Pixalate, the global market-leading ad fraud protection, privacy, and compliance analytics platform, today released the Q3 2024 Google Play Store ‘Teacher Approved’ Apps Privacy Risks & Data Sharing Insights report.
The report examines the extent to which personal information is accessed and shared by apps in the “Teacher Approved” program as well as close look at apps in the program that apparently fail to seek Verifiable Parental Consent (VPC) but still share personal information in the advertising bid stream.
To compile this research, Pixalate’s data science team analyzed 9,816 apps in the Google Play Store with the “Teacher Approved” badge as of Q3 2024. Pixalate’s data science team also analyzed programmatic advertising impressions on these apps to determine if certain data points - such as IP address and geolocation information - were shared with advertisers via the advertising bid stream during Q3 2024. Pixalate's Trust & Safety Advisory Board also conducted a manual review of 20 mobile apps in the ‘Teacher Approved’ program between March-June 2024 to analyze whether the apps seek VPC.
Google’s “Teacher Approved” mobile app program is designed to help parents “find high-quality apps for kids,” according to Google. While the majority of these “Teacher Approved” mobile apps may be processing users’ personal information in compliance with global privacy laws and regulations, this report aims to emphasize the span of data collection practices actively undertaken by mobile apps generally tailored for child-user experiences.
* Pixalate is sharing these statistics mainly to highlight the scale at which personal information is accessed and shared by apps that are certified as ‘Teacher Approved’ on the Google Play Store.
** Between March-June 2024, Pixalate's Trust & Safety Advisory Board conducted a manual review of 20 mobile apps in the ‘Teacher Approved’ program to analyze whether the apps seek VPC.
Download Pixalate’s Q3 2024 Google Play Store ‘Teacher Approved’ Apps Privacy Risk Analysis report.
About Pixalate
Pixalate is a global platform specializing in privacy compliance, ad fraud prevention, and digital ad supply chain data intelligence. Founded in 2012, Pixalate is trusted by regulators, data researchers, advertisers, publishers, ad tech platforms, and financial analysts across the Connected TV (CTV), mobile app, and website ecosystems. Pixalate is accredited by the MRC for the detection and filtration of Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT). pixalate.com
Disclaimer
The content of this press release, and the Google Play Store ‘Teacher Approved’ Apps Privacy Risks & Data Sharing Insights report (the Report), reflect Pixalate's opinions with respect to factors that Pixalate believes may be useful to the digital media industry. Pixalate's opinions are just that, opinions, which means that they are neither facts nor guarantees. Pixalate is sharing this data not to impugn the standing or reputation of any entity, person or app, but, instead, to report findings and trends pertaining to programmatic advertising activity in the time period studied.
