Developers Say the Darnedest Things: Privacy Compliance Processes Followed by Developers of Child-Directed Apps

We investigate the privacy compliance processes followed by developers of child-directed mobile apps. While children’s online laws have existed for decades in US, prior research found relatively low rates compliance. Yet, little is known about how issues come to exist and can be improved address them. Our results, based on surveys (n = 127) interviews 27), suggest that most rely app markets identify issues, they lack complete understandings third-party SDKs integrate, find it challenging ensure these are kept upto-date privacy-related options configured correctly. As a result, we well-resourced outsource decisions auditing services, smaller follow “best-effort” models, assuming their apps compliant so long as not been rejected markets. highlight need usable tools help fix issues.