Microsoft will have to pay $20 million to end a US Consumer Protection Agency (FTC) lawsuit for collecting personal data from minors without parental consent.
The FTC indicates in a press release published this Monday that it accuses Microsoft of having collected, between 2015 and 2020, personal data from children and adolescents under the age of 13, who registered on the Xbox console’s online gaming platform, without informing their parents and keeping them.
To create an account, the user must provide first and last name, email address and date of birth. Microsoft “violated the law” on the protection of children’s privacy online, COPPA, details the FTC.
“The ruling we are proposing makes it easier for parents to protect the privacy of their children’s data on Xbox and limits the information Microsoft can collect and maintain about children,” said Samuel Levine, director of the Office of Protection FTC Consumer Report, and quoted in the press release.
“Microsoft will have to take several measures”
“This action should also make it very clear that children’s avatars, biometrics and health information are not exempt” from the Children’s Privacy Act.
The decision must be approved by a federal court before it can take effect. “Microsoft will need to take several steps to strengthen the privacy protections of children who use its Xbox system,” the FTC said in its statement.
Under COPPA, online services and websites directed to children under the age of 13 must inform parents about the personal information they collect and obtain parental consent.
A Microsoft spokesman, interviewed by AFP, said that Xbox “commits to comply with the decision” of the FTC and that it will develop a new identification system for young audiences.
Source: BFM TV
