How Phones Are Mining Data On Kids (And All Of Us)

Fresh Air

NPR

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4.4 • 34.4K Ratings

🗓️ 16 June 2022

⏱️ 45 minutes

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Summary

Washington Post tech writer Geoffrey Fowler says that apps are collecting data on kids on a massive scale — despite a law that was designed to prevent that. Fowler explains the loophole in the law that apps are using, and ways that the system can and should be changed. We'll also talk about medical data collection, terms of service, and what "ask app not to track" really means.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for this podcast comes from the New Bower Family Foundation, supporting
0:04.7	WHY Wise Fresh Air and its commitment to sharing ideas and encouraging meaningful conversation.
0:11.4	This is Fresh Air.
0:12.6	I'm Dave Davies in for Terry Gross, who's off this week.
0:16.2	Our guest, Jeffrey Fowler, is a technology columnist for the Washington Post, who has a
0:21.3	habit of revealing things about our computers and smartphones that make us squirm.
0:26.0	He writes in a recent column, for example, that apps are spying on our kids on a scale that will shock you.
0:32.4	That's from an ongoing series, Fowler, publishes titled We the Users, which details the ways our phones and apps
0:39.1	harvest our personal data, manipulate information we see and limit our choices.
0:44.1	He says changes are needed in our laws and corporate practices governing the internet and
0:48.9	they present some ideas in the series.
0:50.8	He's also written recently about concerns that information stored in smartphones could be used to
0:57.0	investigate those seeking abortions.
0:59.1	Should they become illegal in some states?
1:01.8	Jeffrey Fowler writes about technology issues from San Francisco.
1:05.7	He worked for the Wall Street Journal before coming to the Washington Post in 2017.
1:10.6	Jeffrey Fowler, welcome back to Fresh Air.
1:12.8	Thanks for having me.
1:14.2	So Jeffrey, the title of this series is We the Users.
1:18.9	You want to explain the expression what you're getting at here?
1:22.6	Well, with apologies to James Madison, who wrote the Constitution, I felt like we needed to have
1:29.7	that same kind of spirit to look at what's going on with the technology in our lives today.
	...

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