A study by data privacy services business Arrka has discovered that more than half of the data acquired from children's apps is sent to Google and Facebook.

According to a study that examined 60 children's Android applications across nine categories, including games, edtech, school, coding, and childcare, Google is the top beneficiary, obtaining 33 percent of the data gathered from such apps, followed by Facebook at 22 percent.

Apps for coding, childcare, and edtech had the most access to these risky permissions. The precise position of children is accessed by about two thirds of childcare and edtech apps, and the camera is accessed by 100 percent of edtech and coding apps.

There were analytics trackers placed in up to 80 percent of the kid-friendly apps and advertising trackers in 54 percent of them. Apps for gaming, education, and coding had the most trackers.

The survey discovered that compared to worldwide applications, the number of Indian apps with age-gating features—such as determining a user's date of birth and limiting access to specific functions based on age—is far lower.

“This is an important aspect of DPDPA (Digital Personal Data Protection Act) compliance, given the requirements around children's data. We observed that Indian apps have a long way to go in this aspect,” it said.

The Act, which was passed in August of last year, includes safeguards to stop data misuse that can negatively affect children's welfare.

In comparison to applications in the US and EU that collect 60 percent and 55 percent of users' dates of birth, just 35 percent of Indian apps do the same. Approximately 13 percent of applications limit access to specific features depending on age, whereas 63 percent and 80 percent of apps in the US and EU do the same.

Comparing Indian apps to their foreign equivalents, the survey found that a notably smaller percentage of Indian apps require users to sign in using social media accounts. Interestingly, Indian applications have somewhat more access to permissions like contact lists and precise locations than do EU and US apps, yet they have around the same or less access to microphones and cameras than do the latter.