A San Francisco woman filed a lawsuit against the Walt Disney for collecting a private information of children through gaming applications by using illegal methods, reported by the Verge. Amanda Rushing said that the information of her child was collected while playing Disney's mobile game and then shared the collected information with the third party for targeting the ads.
Disney used 42 applications to collect children data
According to the Verge, Disney has been stealing a personal information from children through its 42 applications and passing the collected data to the advertisers without asking permission from their parents.
The complaint was filed against three software companies — Upsight, Unity, and Kochava that developed the mobile applications for Disney which contained the tracking software. These app developers make contracts with the third party to insert an embedded code in the apps which could allow the users to make purchases and payments.
Plaintiff Amanda demanded that the company should be stopped from spying on children and transferring collected information to the third party, and also sought compensation.
Disney violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)
According to the Engadget, Disney violated the COPPA, a law that was enacted in 1999 by Congress to protect the information of children online.
According to the COPPA, all the companies should take permission from their parents before sharing or collecting their private information that design applications for children under the age of 13. In 2013, some changes were made in the policies of COPPA that included the things which were considered as personal information like IP address and geolocation.
A company said in a statement that "Disney has a robust COPPA compliance program, and use policies for Disney apps created for children." The company did not agree with the charges and said that they will defend the actions in court. Some other companies which violated the COPPA laws are Genesis Toys, Yelp, Path, and Disney subsidiary.
This is the second time that the Disney was suspected for collecting the children's information by illegal means. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) penalized the subsidiary of Disney Playdom to pay three million dollars for a similar claim in 2011.
List of the apps that violated the COPPA Laws
- AvengersNet
- Beauty and the Beast
- Frozen Free Fall
- Temple Run: Oz
- Temple Run: Brave
