Disney Settles FTC Complaint With YouTube Over Children’s Data Collection

Disney will pay a penalty of $ 10 million on allegations that he has misunderstood videos on YouTube and has made it possible to collect personal data without informing parents or obtaining their consent, the FTC said in an ad Tuesday.

The complaint filed by an American district court alleged that Disney had downloaded videos on YouTube in chains that were not lacking in “no made for children” while the videos should have been labeled “Made for Kids”.

Due to the wrong labeling, videos for children collected more information than they should and used this information to target advertising with children under the age of 13, the FTC said. The error, which allowed features such as automatic reading on videos, would have violated COPPA, the rule for the protection of children’s online privacy.

“Supporting the well-being and safety of children and families is at the heart of what we do. These regulations do not imply digital platforms belonging to Disney and exploited, but is rather limited to the distribution of some of our content on the YouTube platform,” said a Disney spokesperson. “Disney has a long tradition to embrace the highest standards of compliance with children’s privacy laws, and we remain determined to invest in the tools necessary to continue to be a leader in this space.”

In addition to the civil sanction of $ 10 million to have allegedly raped the COPPA, Disney has agreed to ensure the compliance of the COPPA by informing parents and obtaining consent to videos that are not designed for children “and by establishing a revision program on how videos must be labeled. According to the FTC,” this prospective provision reflects and anticipates the growing use of Age insurance technologies to protect children online “.

In addition, the FTC has also taken measures linked to the COPPA against the manufacturer of APITOR TECHNOLOGY toys, which makes robots intended for children aged 6 to 14. The FTC alleges that the company has collected geolo -featured information from children via a third -party application in China. The FTC imposes a penalty of $ 500,000.

Still large companies are missing the brand ‘

Since COPPA was adopted in 1998, the technology that can reach young people has evolved spectacularly, but the application of the law has not released while regulators change their expectations on the way companies should comply. This can be a challenge even for companies like Disney.

“For any company that interacts with children or collects children’s data, obtaining properly compliance with privacy means investing in internal knowledge and resources to comply with these in-evolving standards,” said Cobun Zweifel-Keegan, Managing Director of Washington Professionals, DC Office of the International Association of Privacy Professionals.

In addition to federal rules, there are also laws of states that companies must follow.

“This means more protections for consumers and families. It also means a lot of work for confidentiality teams in a wide variety of organizations,” Zweifel-Keegan told Cnet. “As the standards change, and taking into account the complex ecosystem involved in the supply to children a safe online experience, even companies that invest a lot in privacy can miss the brand.

“When they don’t, they can miss the brand with a wider margin.”

Disney has already missed the brand’s privacy brand: in 2011, the company paid a fine of $ 3 million on similar allegations against its social networking service.

“If a Disney’s reputation company the fact, you can bet that many other brands, large and small, are also,” said Mark Weinstein, expert in confidentiality and author of Restoring Our Sanity Online. “Disney is one of the most reliable brands in the world, but they knowingly violated the rules. YouTube would have warned them in 2019, but Disney continued for years to collect advertising revenues worth millions of dollars while hoping that they would not be done.”

Weinstein said there was emerging legislation that could do more to protect children from targeted advertisements and other online dangers, especially in the emergence of AI and the increase in spy software. “Fines alone will not solve this because dominant companies like Disney and Google pay them like” costs of doing business “,” said Weinstein.