Personal data: Microsoft will pay a fine of 20 million dollars
Nth fine on data protection. This time for Microsoft. The Redmond firm will have to pay 20 million dollars to put an end to lawsuits from the American consumer protection…
Personal data: Microsoft will pay a fine of 20 million dollars
Nth fine on data protection. This time for Microsoft. The Redmond firm will have to pay 20 million dollars to put an end to lawsuits from the American consumer protection agency (FTC) which accuses it of having collected personal data from minors, without the consent of their parents.
The FTC indicates, in a press release published on Monday, that it accuses Microsoft of having, between 2015 and 2020, collected the personal data of children and adolescents. under 13 years old , who registered on the online games platform of the Xbox console, without informing their parents, and to have kept them. To create an account, the user must indeed provide first and last name, e-mail address, and date of birth.
The Xbox at the heart of the problem
Microsoft “broke the law” on the protection of the privacy of children online, the “COPPA”, details the FTC. “The ruling we’re proposing makes it easier for parents to protect their children’s data privacy on Xbox and limits the information Microsoft can collect and maintain about minors,” said Samuel Levine, director of the Office of Consumer Protection. from the FTC, and quoted in the press release.
“This action should also make it very clear that avatars, biometric data and children’s health information are not exempt” from the Minors Privacy Act. The decision still needs to be approved by a federal court before it can go into effect.
Rain of fines for GAFAM
“Microsoft will have to take several measures to strengthen the protection of the privacy of children who use its Xbox system”, underlines the FTC, in its press release. Under the “COPPA” law, online services and websites intended for children under the age of 13 are required to inform parents of the personal information they collect and to obtain parental consent.
The pace of fines against GAFAM is not slowing down. 1er June, Amazon paid $30 million for breach of data privacy around Ring and Alexa products. An amount that is admittedly modest on a group scale, but whose impact is negative in terms of image. Sanctions are not just symbolic. On May 22, Meta received a fine of 1.2 billion for illegal transfer of data, a record.
