UTFacultiesEEMCSDisciplines & departmentsSCSResearchRunning ProjectsChildren’s privacy and mobile health applications: An analysis of data sharing practices and impact

Children’s privacy and mobile health applications: An analysis of data sharing practices and impact

running project Services, cyber-security (SCS)

Children’s privacy and mobile health applications: An analysis of data sharing practices and impact

Funded by: New Frontiers in Research Fund - Exploration (NFRFE)

Period: May, 2020- Mar, 2024

Contact:

Partners: Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto

Description:

Children today are growing up in an immersive digital media culture, with nearly continuous interaction with mobile applications (apps). Child digital engagement has extended to the realm of health, where apps target a range of health promotion and disease management foci. The perceived value of health apps has resulted in their endorsement by child health organizations and prescription by clinicians, often without a complete understanding of data privacy and security. It is known that app developers routinely transmit user data to third parties to enhance user experiences or monetize the app. Although the data sharing practices of these third parties are largely unexplored, adult health app research indicates that commercial entities may be the recipients of personal and health data. In the case of children, serious safety and privacy issues can arise if health information is used for data-driven health product and service advertising without clinician consultation. Further, data aggregators may identify child users and create digital health dossiers that eventually impact on education or employment in adulthood. It is therefore critical to characterize the data sharing practices of child health apps and examine the advertising impact of transmitted data. Using a phased-approach that combines the disciplines of pediatric nursing, health policy, and computer science, we will meet this need. First, we will use a rapid scoping review to identify apps endorsed by influential child health institutions and oversight bodies. Second, focusing on review-identified apps and those most downloaded from commercial stores, we will use novel software methods to electronically intercept and analyze data transmitted to external servers. Third, we will conduct a systematic content analysis of targeted advertising presented to children within apps, using dummy profiles. Our analyses will enable the characterization of data being transmitted by child health apps, the entities receiving the data and their data sharing practices, and the resultant advertising (and potential health) impacts on children. This research will provide a crucially needed picture of the privacy risks to children associated with health app use.