Microsoft Must Pay US Government $20 Million Over Xbox Privacy Violations
Microsoft has been fined $20 million by the Federal Trade Commission for collecting personal information from children via Xbox, which the FTC says was done without consent from parents. According to the US watchdog group, Microsoft failed to notify parents and has violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) in the process. In addition to the fine, Microsoft will now also have to make several changes that improve privacy protection for children on Xbox.
«Our proposed order makes it easier for parents to protect their children's privacy on Xbox, and limits what information Microsoft can collect and retain about kids,» FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection boss Samuel Levine said. «This action should also make it abundantly clear that kids' avatars, biometric data, and health information are not exempt from COPPA.»
The issue stemmed from the process that was required when signing up for an Xbox Live account, which Microsoft only changed in late 2021. Signing up for an Xbox Live account required personal data such as a full name, email address, and a date of birth, and even if your date of birth showed that you were 13 years of age or under, Microsoft would still require more details. Until 2019, the process also included a pre-checked box indicating that you had accepted to receive promotional material and provide Microsoft with data that it would send to advertisers.
Proposed order will require Microsoft to bolster protections for children; makes clear that avatars generated from kids’ image and biometric and health data are protected under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) /2
According to the FTC, data from children was kept by Microsoft from 2015 to 2020, even if the sign-up process had
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