If you are a teenage technology wizard with an idea for a cellphone “app,” you might not consider yourself as an entrepreneur on the way to becoming a small business owner. You also may not think about the consequences of the multitude of laws that may regulate the app that you are developing.

But that is exactly what you might be, and exactly why it is so vitally important to seek the counsel of an attorney experienced with business startups, no matter how small. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission is currently investigating the makers of over 400 apps that may have failed to learn about privacy laws and those governing unfair and deceptive trade practices before selling what seems like such a small product.

According to the FTC, these apps were designed for children and violated the privacy of the minor consumers. The apps requested data from minors without the consent or knowledge of the parents. The danger according to the federal agency is that the information gathered could be used to create a profile of a child with very detailed information and land in the hands of a third party.

A lot of cellphone apps are downloaded for free, but include pop-up advertising that appears while the minor is using the application. The ads in some instances included information that the FTC claims would be objectionable to a number of parents. Some of the apps as well as the ads also link back to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter that some parents want to regulate access to and also contain routes for children to post private information without supervision.

Source: Pioneer Press, “Government investigating makers of cellphone apps,” Richard Lardner, Dec. 10, 2012