StarMaker

Is StarMaker safe?

For adults who want to sing, StarMaker is a reasonable choice, with ordinary ad tracking and no known breach. For children it is a bigger question, because the app mixes teenagers with adult strangers in live rooms, duets and private chats. We score it 50/100, ahead of the live-streaming apps Bigo Live and SUGO (both 40), and below Roblox (55).

The app has changed hands over the years. Its seller is now Skywork AI Pte. Ltd. in Singapore, and StarMaker belongs to Kunlun Tech, the Chinese company that also owns the Opera browser and calls its AI model Skywork. Google Play shows more than 500 million downloads.

What StarMaker collects about you

Apple's label has a long tracking section: purchases, identifiers, usage data and "other data" may be used to track you across other companies' apps and websites. Linked to your identity are contacts, coarse location, photos, videos, audio, purchase history, user and device IDs, diagnostics and how you use the app. The Google Play form says app interactions and device IDs are shared for analytics and advertising, and the app contains ads.

The privacy policy, effective 5 August 2026, is clearer than many in this group. It comes in separate versions for the US, the EU and UK, and the rest of the world, names an EU representative in Munich, and spells out the legal basis for each use. The version shown in the EEA and UK, which names Skywork AI Pte. Ltd. as controller, lists some things to know before uploading:

• StarMaker may extract face images and voice data from your videos and recordings to estimate your age and gender for song recommendations, and says it deletes them once it has the estimate. The policy never calls this data "biometric".
• It may review facial images for age assurance and the safety of minors. The beauty camera processes face images and the audio effects process your voice.
• It shares information with advertisers and measurement companies to show personalised ads, and may use your songs and videos in its own marketing.
• Contact access is optional and used to find friends.

Kids, teens and strangers

The App Store rates StarMaker 13+ and lists in-app controls for age assurance and parental controls, plus messaging, user-generated content and age-restricted social features. The policy says some creation and sharing features are adults-only and that StarMaker gets parental consent where local law requires it.

The underlying design has not changed much. Teenagers sing in party rooms, join "Family" groups and live duets, and can be messaged by people they have never met. In 2018 the Children's Advertising Review Unit, an industry watchdog run by BBB National Programs, reviewed the app, which worked with the Selfie-Mic, a selfie stick with a built-in microphone. CARU saw "many accounts that featured children who appeared to be, or identified themselves as, younger than 13". It said the app was directed at children under US children's privacy rules, so an age gate alone was not enough, and StarMaker agreed to change its app. CARU is not a regulator, and no fine followed.

Coins and subscriptions

Singing is free with ads, but much of the app is paid. Coins cost from $0.99 for 60 to $49.99 for 3,000 on the US App Store, and paid status such as VIP and "Noble Identity" sits on top. StarMaker Pro costs $7.99 a week, $14.99 a month or $59.99 a year, and the weekly plan works out at about seven times the annual price. Two privacy tools, hiding your followers and who you follow from strangers and deleting the record of content and spaces you viewed, are VIP perks rather than settings for everyone.

How to use StarMaker more safely

1. For a child under 16, set up the account together, make it private and use the app's parental controls and your phone's purchase approval.
2. Decline contact access; you can still find friends by username.
3. Do not click "event" links that promise free coins, and never sign in through a link someone sends you in chat.
4. Choose the yearly Pro plan or none at all, and cancel in your store settings a day before renewal.
5. Refuse the tracking request on iPhone, and delete your advertising ID on Android.

How we scored it

Regulatory record (85) is the strongest factor: no regulator has fined or ordered StarMaker, though few have examined it. Privacy (35) is the weakest, because of broad ad tracking and face and voice analysis of uploads. Security (52) credits encryption at rest and in transit, offset by the lack of end-to-end encryptionEnd-to-end encryptionEncryption in which only the sender and the recipient can read a message. The company running the service cannot see its content.More in the glossary and a public bug bounty. Scams and harmful content (45) reflects a 13+ app where teenagers and adult strangers share rooms and chats.