Disney Sued for Tracking Children Without Permission via Mobile Games

[LASER_oneXM]

A disgruntled parent has filed a lawsuit against Disney and three software developers for collecting personal information about her kid via the company's mobile games.

The lawsuit, filed this week in a California court, argues that Disney never asked for parental approval before collecting any data on the kids playing Disney mobile games.

The data collection took place via advertising SDKs (software development kits) embedded in the company's smartphone and tablet games.

The lawsuit lists as defendants Disney and three software developers — whose SDKs Disney developers used inside their games. The three companies are Upsight, Inc.; Unity Technologies SF; and Kochava, Inc.


Disney collected kids data via 40+ games

The lawsuit claims that over 40 Disney games for Android and iOS collection kids information via the SDKs, and transmitted this data to Disney's servers.

Plaintiffs fear that Disney is using this secret data collection practice to create profiles on their children.

The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA) is a United States federal law that outlaws the collection of personal data from kids under the age of 13.

This is not the first time Disney broke COPPA. In 2011, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) fined the multi-billion dollar Disney corporation with $3 million after subsidiary Playdom, Inc. collected data on child players without parental approval.

 

[ForgottenSeer 58943]

We need a COPPA for adults, so we can start a bunch of litigation against these data mining and tracking firms.

 

[ispx]

so much for walt disney being a children-friendly company

 

[frogboy]

Not the right image for Disney.

 

[TairikuOkami]

so much for walt disney being a children-friendly company

Like it ever was.

 

[ispx]

@TairikuOkami,

the video is more about disney's gender bias which is totally off-topic for this thread & has no connection with my post either.

 

[tryfon]

@TairikuOkami,

the video is more about disney's gender bias which is totally off-topic for this thread & has no connection with my post either.

This.