Who's Tracking Your Kids?

Internet privacy has been a hot button topic recently. From controversies surrounding the National Security Agency’s surveillance of Internet usage and emails to the monitoring of our shopping habits by retailers (new merchandise return tracking enhancements has this chronic returner hanging her in head in shame), we often feel like we have eyes on us everywhere we go.

While we’re concerned about our own privacy as adults, the thought of someone snooping on our little ones online can bring out the mama bear.

According to eMarketer, 25 percent of kids ages 5 to 7, and 39 percent of kids 6 to 9 have a smart phone or tablet. While limited screen time can offer online learning opportunities for kids (and let’s face it, mind-numbing games when mom and dad need a 10-minute break), it also can expose kids’ information to third party companies.

To help protect our kids from data collection when they’re online, Disconnect, a privacy software company boasting one million users, just launched Disconnect Kids!, a new app for the iPhone and iPad which puts the kibosh on tracking sites that follow your kids as they travel the Internet.

Why is protecting kids’ data so important? If your kids play online games, they’re often bombarded with ads that alert them about other games and apps they can download. As annoying as ads are when kids are in the middle of battling evil demons, they also collect behavior data for tracking purposes.

“There are thousands of invisible tracking sites that you probably haven’t heard of that have relationships with the sites and apps you use,” explained Casey Oppenheim, consumer- and privacy-rights advocacy attorney and cofounder of Disconnect, via email. “These invisible trackers collect information about your browsing history, in-app activity and other info primarily to target ads and marketing messages to you on the sites and apps you visit. These are called behaviorally targeted ads because they’re based on your online behavior. Unfortunately, the ads and messages that are targeted to our children can be anti-parent – ‘Kids, you’re in control of what you eat!’ – and anti-kid – ‘This stuff (that’s actually unhealthy) is cool!”

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which went into effect in 2000, is focused on protecting kids under age 13 when they’re online by prohibiting the collection of personal information and requiring the consent of a parent or guardian before any data is gathered. While COPPA has been incredibly effective in the privacy rights battle, there’s still a loophole that allows many sites to easily maneuver around the regulations – a loophole that Disconnect Kids! can close, according to Oppenheim.

“COPPA allows sites and apps not directed at children (but that lots of kids visit, like YouTube) to continue tracking and targeting users unless the site has ‘actual knowledge’ that a child is the user, which sites and apps often don’t know. So our app empowers families to pro-actively block the tracking and targeting of children that can take place even on COPPA compliant sites and apps.”

According to the Disconnect site, the new app actively blocks requests for personal data and allows you as a parent to block or unblock the 20 most prevalent companies that track app activity. In addition, when you download Disconnect Kids!, the app offers fun, kid-friendly educational tools that teach children why they should protect their privacy online. Disconnect Kids! is currently available for the iPhone or iPad from the app store.

Oppenheim noted the company is developing a kids’ browser extension to protect home computers and laptops and will be expanding to Android and other mobile devices in the near future. The app is free, but like the original Disconnect software, users are asked to pay-what-they-want to help the Certified B Corporation sustain its work and support nonprofit organizations dedicated to improving the Internet.