On Monday (6/3) at Apple’s 2019 Worldwide Developers Conference, the company announced its new kid-focused privacy changes . Apple now requires developers to place advertisements, links that lead out of the apps and purchasing opportunities behind parental gates, which ideally can only be accessed by parents. Additionally, once a mobile app is added in the App Store’s Kids Category, even if the developer later chooses to remove the app from the category, the app will still be required to follow the Kids Category's privacy requirements. This will ensure that all the apps that are labeled as being for-children when downloaded will remain so after all subsequent updates. Developers are also barred from using third-party advertising or analytics in apps that appear in the Kids Category (presumably to reduce tracking). Last but not least, Apple urged developers to be mindful of privacy laws in the various jurisdictions where they collect data from kids. These changes are defini...

Apple has agreed to pay at least $32.5 million to settle a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaint that it charged consumers for in-app purchases incurred by children on kids’ mobile apps without verifiable parental consent.  Apple has also agreed to change its billing practices by March 31, 2014 to ensure that it receives “informed” verifiable parental consent before charging for in-app purchases made on mobile apps directed to children. Apple also agreed that if it gets consumers’ consent for future charges, consumers must have the option to withdraw their consent at any time. Under the current system on iTunes, parents were required to enter a password to process in-app purchases, however, according to the FTC, Apple failed to notify parents that by doing so, in addition to approving a single in-app purchase that they were also consenting to 15 minutes of additional unlimited purchases their children could make without further action from the parent. In its pre...