Microsoft has been ordered to pay a $20 million fine to settle FTC charges that it violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act:
that Microsoft violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act by collecting the personal information of children via Xbox without parental consent. The FTC also states that Microsoft retained this information for far longer than was necessary.On top of the $20 million fine, the Department of Justice, on behalf of the FTC, has filed a proposed order that will require Microsoft to improve its privacy protections for child users on Xbox.
The FTC said that up until late 2021, when a user created an Xbox account, Microsoft would ask for personal information, such as a name, email address, and date of birth. Even if the date of birth indicated that the user was under 13, Microsoft still asked for additional personal information from the user, including a phone number.
"During the investigation, we identified a technical glitch where our systems did not delete account creation data for child accounts where the account creation process was started but not completed. This was inconsistent with our policy to save that information for only 14 days to make it easier for gamers to pick up where they left off to complete the process.
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