Computational giant Microsoft has said yes to making a mega $20 million settlement after it received striking allegations of violating the Federal Law linked to children’s privacy. The company is believed to gather data from the likes of Xbox users who were below 13.
Similarly, it was mentioned how the tech giant took on personal information from kids before they sent out a notification to parents and got on board with parental consent. This happened to be a complaint that came forward from the FTC that came into effect on Monday in Washington.
In the same way, the firm was seen speaking about how it failed to allow parents in on the type of data that it was busy collecting from kids and why it ended up doing something like that.
Not informing parents was very alarming considering the fact that information was being sent out to so many third parties.
The government even went as far as alleging how the tech firm retained plenty of personal details from kids for a long period of time than was required. It really did put kids' information at risk for being used in the external world. And the fact that third parties would now be taking hold of this was shocking.
This complaint says the firm ended up violating a leading Online Privacy Act that stops companies from taking on personal data intentionally, even when they are aware that kids are involved below the age of 13. Without having any approval from parents, it means companies are needed to get rid of data after a certain amount of time.
Most of these complaints took place before the start of 2021 as alleged in this complaint. Meanwhile, a few other specifics revealed how Microsoft forced young Xbox users to provide consent on their service agreement since 2019. Xbox users were forced to comply with receiving promotional messages and then sharing such data with advertisers.
Software giant Microsoft requested all of that data from users despite them informing their age to be 13 and below. And once it did end up getting all of its data from the kids below 13, that was the point they found it alright to have parents involved.
Now that things are more in the open, Microsoft has been fined $20 million and it does not stop there. It would also be required to get consent from parents for accounts created before May 2021, providing the account holder is below 13.
Read next: Microsoft Introduces Third-Party Browser Support for Bing Chat and Expands their User Base
Similarly, it was mentioned how the tech giant took on personal information from kids before they sent out a notification to parents and got on board with parental consent. This happened to be a complaint that came forward from the FTC that came into effect on Monday in Washington.
In the same way, the firm was seen speaking about how it failed to allow parents in on the type of data that it was busy collecting from kids and why it ended up doing something like that.
Not informing parents was very alarming considering the fact that information was being sent out to so many third parties.
The government even went as far as alleging how the tech firm retained plenty of personal details from kids for a long period of time than was required. It really did put kids' information at risk for being used in the external world. And the fact that third parties would now be taking hold of this was shocking.
This complaint says the firm ended up violating a leading Online Privacy Act that stops companies from taking on personal data intentionally, even when they are aware that kids are involved below the age of 13. Without having any approval from parents, it means companies are needed to get rid of data after a certain amount of time.
Most of these complaints took place before the start of 2021 as alleged in this complaint. Meanwhile, a few other specifics revealed how Microsoft forced young Xbox users to provide consent on their service agreement since 2019. Xbox users were forced to comply with receiving promotional messages and then sharing such data with advertisers.
Software giant Microsoft requested all of that data from users despite them informing their age to be 13 and below. And once it did end up getting all of its data from the kids below 13, that was the point they found it alright to have parents involved.
Now that things are more in the open, Microsoft has been fined $20 million and it does not stop there. It would also be required to get consent from parents for accounts created before May 2021, providing the account holder is below 13.
Read next: Microsoft Introduces Third-Party Browser Support for Bing Chat and Expands their User Base