GOP-Led App Store Bill Ramps Up Amid Dire Privacy Concerns

A GOP-sponsored bill policing app stores is headed for the next step to passage amid dire concerns about the potential for abuse, as similar measures are being enacted at the state level.

The “App Store Accountability Act” advances to the markup phase on Thursday in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce after similar bills have been signed into law in Utah, Texas, Louisiana, and Alabama.

Rep. John James (R-MI) and Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) are the cosponsors of the House version, which says it is intended to “safeguard children by providing parents with clear and accurate information about the apps downloaded and used by their children and to ensure proper parental consent is achieved, and for other purposes.”

But activists and even some parents have raised dire concerns about the bill, while supporting its stated aim.

Those concerns include:

• Broad application to all users creates unnecessary privacy intrusions: Unlike showing ID only for age-restricted items in a physical store (like alcohol), the bill would require age checks for everyone right when entering the app store, before any specific app or content is selected.
• Heightened risks from handling sensitive personal data online: Users would submit identifiers such as driver’s licenses or facial scans to multiple parties that might store this information, unlike a quick, temporary check in the real world where the ID is simply viewed and returned—raising dangers of data misuse, breaches, or improper retention.
• Increased potential for government overreach and content control: In the current political climate, centralized age verification at the app store level could enable authorities to more easily restrict or monitor access to certain types of online information and expression for various groups.
• Significant circumvention vulnerabilities that could undermine the law’s purpose: While it might complicate access via apps, people (including minors) could easily bypass restrictions by using web browsers on phones, computers, or other devices to reach the same content, since many sites and services aren’t app-based or are accessible outside app stores.
• Lack of proven effective technology and existence of better alternatives: No age assurance system has been fully successful worldwide, with trade-offs in accuracy, privacy, and security; instead of this approach, more targeted options like built-in app parental controls, stronger transparency rules for platforms, privacy-by-design features, and comprehensive child data protections would be preferable without the same drawbacks.

Several state versions have faced legal challenges and adverse rulings.

After lawmakers in Washington State introduced a bill last year, CNN highlighted Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony to Congress, during which he suggested shifting the burden for safety to app stores — and the app stores’ response:

KATE BOLDUAN: This morning, a new bill in the state of Washington will require app stores to get parental consent and verify the ages of its youngest users.

Now, for years, social media companies like Meta have faced increasing pressure to do more to protect kids from harm on these apps. They’ve argued that it should be left up to the app stores. But apps or companies like Apple and Google say it raises privacy and First Amendment concerns.

But still, we are here today and this is a big step. CNN’s Clare Duffy has much more on this. Talk to me about what is happening in Utah.

CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: Yes. So this is a bill in Utah that really is taking Mark Zuckerberg’s advice here. Zuckerberg, in a congressional hearing last year, raised this idea that app stores should be responsible for validating users’ ages.

This was the same hearing where he apologized to families who said their children had been hurt by social media platforms. Let’s listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MARK ZUCKERBERG, META CEO: I don’t think that parents should have to upload an ID or prove that they’re the parent of a child in every single app that their children use. I think the right place to do this and a place where it would be actually very easy for it to work is within the app stores themselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DUFFY: So Utah has now passed this bill, the App Store Accountability Act, whereby app stores would have to verify users’ ages. They would have to share user age categories with app developers. And they would also have to seek parental consent any time a user, a minor user, tries to download or make a purchase in an app.

And the idea here really is to have sort of a central clearinghouse for verifying users’ ages so that apps can create more safe experiences for young users. There are now eight other states that are considering similar legislation. And this bill in Utah is just awaiting the governor’s signature.

BOLDUAN: Oh, very interesting. How are like the app stores, the Apples and the Googles, responding?

DUFFY: The app stores are saying essentially that there are privacy concerns here, that every user, not just children, but adult users too, would have to submit information to verify their ages. And that not every app requires age verification. Here’s what Apple said in a white paper last week.

They said, while only a fraction of apps on the app store may require age verification, all users would have to hand over their sensitive, personally identifying information to us. Regardless of whether they actually want to use one of these limited set of apps, that’s not in the interest of user safety or privacy.

Watch above via CNN News Central.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!