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In full process for the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, in which the controversy is being the protagonist, especially with Sony, which has received numerous lawsuits in recent weeks for negatively affecting the competition, the FTC has once again been the protagonist against Microsoftand not because it has blocked the acquisition of the company that owns IPs like Call of Duty, Diablo or World of Warcraft.
According to the information offered by the Federal Trade Commission itself, Microsoft has been fined $20 million for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), by collecting personal information from minors through their Xbox consoles without prior parental consent. In addition, the FTC has ensured that Redmond retained this information for an excessive time.
Microsoft fined $20 million for collecting data from children through Xbox
Additionally, the Department of Justice, on behalf of the FTC, has required Microsoft to improve privacy protections for seniors on its Xbox consoles, which order will extend to “COOPA protects third-party game publishers with want Microsoft shares children’s data”. Yes indeed, the aforementioned order must be previously approved by a Federal Court before it can take effect.
Our proposed order makes it easier for parents to protect their children’s privacy on Xbox, and limits the information Microsoft can collect and retain about children. This action should also make it very clear that children’s avatars, biometrics, and health information are not exempt from COPPA.
Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s office of consumer protection.
The fine of 20 million dollars to Microsoft is based on the fact that, until the end of 2021, when a user created an Xbox account, I had to enter a series of data that violated the privacy of children under 13 years of age, who were required to include additional information such as a phone number. In addition, another reason was that this data was retained by the company “sometimes for years”, without any justification, even when the account creation process was not completed.
Microsoft’s response
The company has not been slow to respond to the announcement of this fine for collecting data from children through Xbox. Those of Redmond, through the words of Dave McCarthy, CVP of Xbox player services, has said on Xbox Wire that he argued it for the FTC It was due to “a data retention failure” Microsoft system. “During our investigation, we identified a glitch where our systems did not delete account creation data for child accounts where the account creation process was started but not completed.”.
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we are xbox.com
Of course, McCarthy assures that Microsoft has taken this very seriously, and that the account creation process has been completely updated, since it is now “requires players to first identify date of birth and, if under 13, obtain verified parental consent before providing any information to us”. Therefore, it seems that the anomaly that has caused the fine of 20 million dollars to Microsoft has already been solved.