Microsoft fined $20m for \u201ccollecting children\u2019s information\u201d MicrosoftThe FTC has fined Microsoft $20m for violating the Children\u2019s Online Privacy Protection Act by \u201ccollecting information\u201d from young players. Microsoft has agreed to pay the Federal Trade Commission $20m for collecting details from gamers under 13 years old. According to an FTC statement, Microsoft stored information from 2015 until 2020 on around 10m players who didn\u2019t complete the account creation process. The Children\u2019s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) requires online platforms to notify parents when personal data is gathered from gamers younger than 13. However, Microsoft had failed to obtain \u201cverifiable parental consent\u201d before storing information. Therefore, it violated COPPA\u2019s requirements and must pay a settlement. FTC fines Microsoft for violating Children\u2019s Privacy Act On Twitter, the FTC revealed that it fined Microsoft $20m for its illegal data-collecting practice. \u201cOur proposed order makes it easier for parents to protect their children\u2019s privacy on Xbox and limits what information Microsoft can collect and retain about kids,\u201d Samuel Levine \u2013 Director of the FTC\u2019s Bureau of Consumer Protection \u2013 said. \u201cThis action should also make it abundantly clear that kids\u2019 avatars, biometric data, and health information are not exempt from COPPA.\u201d In addition to paying the fine, Microsoft must begin a system that deletes children\u2019s data within two weeks if they haven\u2019t obtained parental permission. Also, the company has to ask for parental consent for children\u2019s accounts created before May 2021. Dave McCarthy \u2013 corporate vice president of Xbox Player Services \u2013 responded to the settlement in a blog post. \u201cRegrettably, we did not meet customer expectations and are committed to complying with the order to continue improving upon our safety measures,\u201d McCarthy remarked. \u201cWe believe that we can and should do more, and we\u2019ll remain steadfast in our commitment to safety, privacy, and security for our community.\u201d This isn\u2019t the first time that a video game company has had to pay out a massive fine for violating FTC guidelines, with Epic Games having to pay out over $500m due to violating similar laws.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Microsoft fined $20m for \u201ccollecting children\u2019s information\u201d MicrosoftThe FTC has fined Microsoft $20m for violating the Children\u2019s Online Privacy Protection Act by \u201ccollecting information\u201d from young players. Microsoft has agreed to pay the Federal Trade Commission $20m for collecting details from gamers under 13 years old. According to an FTC statement, Microsoft stored information from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80991\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}