Microsoft will pay $20 million to settle government charges that it collected personal information from children without their parents\u2019 consent, officials said Monday.<\/p>\n
The Federal Trade Commission alleged that from 2015 to 2020 Microsoft collected personal data from children under age 13 who signed up to its Xbox gaming system without their parents\u2019 permission and retained this information.<\/p>\n
To open an account, users had to provide their first and last names, email addresses, and dates of birth.<\/p>\n
The FTC said Microsoft violated a law called the Children\u2019s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA.<\/p>\n
\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 said Samuel Levine, head of the FTC\u2019s Bureau of Consumer Protection.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis action should also make it abundantly clear that kids\u2019 avatars, biometric data, and health information are not exempt from COPPA,\u201d Levine added.<\/p>\n
The decision still needs the approval of a federal court before it can be implemented.<\/p>\n
The FTC said Microsoft will be required to take several steps to bolster privacy protections for child users of its Xbox system.<\/p>\n
Under the COPPA law, online services and websites aimed at kids under 13 must notify parents about the personal information they collect and obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting and using any personal information collected from children.<\/p>\n
Microsoft did not immediately reply to an AFP request for comment.<\/p>\n
AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Microsoft will pay $20 million to settle government charges that it collected personal information from children without their parents\u2019 consent, officials said Monday. The Federal Trade Commission alleged that from 2015 to 2020 Microsoft collected personal data from children under age 13 who signed up to its Xbox gaming system without their parents\u2019 permission and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":28608,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-foreign-jurisdiction"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t