More than two thirds of those apps—78%—were caught sharing data for the purposes of monetizing those students in some way, while nearly all (96%) were caught sharing students’ device data with some sort of tech company, like Google GOOG,To come up with those figures, the ISL Team took a random sample of 13 schools in each state, and went over each school’s website “with a fine toothed comb,” to figure out which apps schools required or suggested students download .“They’re saying ‘Oh, there’s all this technology out there that can help you succeed.’ I don’t think they’re thinking about harms; they’re just trying to be helpful.”And in some cases, these apps are genuinely helpful; the 1,722 apps that the team surveyed included “school utility apps” meant to keep students (and parents) abreast of changes to bussing schedules or potential snow days.Other apps were meant to make it easier for students to send photos for their schools’ yearbook, or to log in for attendance virtually.Some 34% of those same apps were caught sending similar data to Apple AAPL,Online digital advertising uses labyrinthian networks to ingest data for ad targeting.As Irene Knapp, ISL’s technology director put it, there’s “no way” to establish whether a given data point was sourced from a child—and no way to know which company might use that data for tracking down the line."