Pixalate's Q3 2022 COPPA Risk Scorecard Report Reveals State of Children's Online Privacy: 44% of Top 1,000 Likely Child-Directed Apps in Google & Apple Stores Request Permissions to Access Personal Information

Advertisers spend 3x more per app on likely child-directed apps; Child-directed apps are 37% more likely to share location data with advertisers, according to Pixalate's data.

LONDON, Nov. 17, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Pixalate, the global market-leading fraud protection, privacy, and compliance analytics platform for Connected TV (CTV) and Mobile Advertising, today released the Q3 2022 Google vs. Apple COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) Risk Scorecard Report to examine the state of children's online privacy across apps available for download in the Google and Apple app stores.

The list of the top 1,000 likely child-directed apps that have programmatic ads and have been reviewed for child-directedness by Pixalate's Trust and Safety Advisory Board of educators can be accessed here.

Pixalate found 419k+ apps likely child-directed apps between the Google Play and Apple App stores. There was a 2.3% increase in the number of likely child-directed apps in the Google Play Store quarter-over-quarter, according to Pixalate's data. Additionally, 81% of the top 1,000 most popular likely child-directed apps on Google shared either GPS or IP address with advertisers and/or data brokers in Q3 2022.

According to Pixalate's research, advertisers spend 3x more per app on likely child-directed apps compared to general audience apps. Child-directed apps are also more likely to share sensitive user data with advertisers with 59%+ of likely child-directed apps sharing both GPS and IP address with third-party digital advertisers compared to 43% of likely non-child-directed apps.

• There are 419k+ likely child-directed apps across the Google and Apple stores as of Q3 2022.
• 8% of apps in both Apple and Google app stores are likely child-directed
• 44% of all likely child-directed mobile apps request permissions to access personal info.
• 64% of likely child-directed apps have no country of registration identified. Only 9% are registered in the U.S.
• 81% of the top 1k most popular likely child-directed apps in the Google store transmit location or IP data in the ad bid stream

Read the full Q3 2022 Google vs. Apple COPPA Risk Scorecard Report here.

Pixalate uses automated processing derived from a combination of signals to determine if an app is likely to be child-directed, including the app's category, sub-category, content rating, and contextual signals (specifically, child-related keywords in app's title or the app's description). Pixalate also leverages manual app review by educators on Pixalate's Trust & Safety Advisory Board, who make assessments of apps based on the child-directed factors outlined in the COPPA Rule. See our full methodology for more information.

Pixalate is the market-leading fraud protection, privacy, and compliance analytics platform for Connected TV (CTV) and Mobile Advertising. We work 24/7 to guard your reputation and grow your media value. Pixalate offers the only system of coordinated solutions across display, app, video, and CTV for better detection and elimination of ad fraud. Pixalate is an MRC-accredited service for the detection and filtration of sophisticated invalid traffic (SIVT) across desktop and mobile web, mobile in-app, and CTV advertising. www.pixalate.com

The content of this press release, and the Q3 2022 Google vs. Apple COPPA Risk Scorecard 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; and neither this press release nor the Report are intended to impugn the standing or reputation of any entity, person or app, but instead, to report findings and apparent trends pertaining to mobile apps from the Google and Apple app stores. Pixalate calculates estimated programmatic ad spend through proprietary statistical models that incorporate programmatic monthly active users (MAU), the average session duration per user, the average CPM for the category of a given app, and ad density.

Contact:
Liz Margolis
610-613-5174
[email protected]

SOURCE Pixalate