In today’s world, information security is a major concern for everyone, including children. As technology continues to advance and become more widespread, children are increasingly exposed to risks of data collection and more. In the pas couple of years several major companies, including social media platforms, operating systems, and video-sharing websites, have been accused of collecting children’s information without parental consent. In a recent case, Microsoft was fined $20 million for illegally collecting information through its Xbox consoles. Here are the details…
Microsoft Xbox Data Scandal Shows Need for Stronger Online Privacy Regulations
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has imposed a $20 million fine on Microsoft for breaching children’s online privacy regulations. The violation involved Microsoft collecting personal information from children under 13 years old without obtaining parental consent. The FTC discovered that Microsoft gathered the following details without proper authorization: names, email addresses, dates of birth, gamertags, gamer scores, and Xbox Live activity histories.
The company used this personal information to track children’s gaming habits, target them with advertising, and sell their data to third-party companies. Microsoft have already responded to the ruling with a post on the official Xbox blog. The company said in its statement:
“We recently entered into a settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to update our account creation process and resolve a data retention glitch found in our system. Regrettably, we did not meet customer expectations and are committed to complying with the order to continue improving upon our safety measures. We believe that we can and should do more, and we’ll remain steadfast in our commitment to safety, privacy, and security for our community.”
“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. Our engineering team took immediate action: we fixed the glitch, deleted the data, and implemented practices to prevent the error from recurring. The data was never used, shared, or monetized.”
Apparently, Microsoft seems to have resolved this issue following the “highly convincing” statement and the $20 million fine.
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