“We didn’t live up to expectations,” Microsoft said in a statement explaining the $20 million fine

game news “We didn’t live up to expectations,” Microsoft said in a statement explaining the $20 million fine

The Manufacturer and publisher Microsoft has just been pinned by the FTCwhat the company accuses does not respect the privacy of its usersespecially children.

Microsoft didn’t comply with the law until the end of 2021

Dave McCarthy just published an article on the Microsoft blog in which he recognizes the company’s failure to protect the privacy of young people their users. Indeed, the The Federal Trade Commission just ordered the automaker to pay a $20 million penalty. The reason ? The FTC accuses Microsoft of this Don’t store children’s Xbox account details properly, which violates the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, the famous COPPA law. The FTC describes in a press release :

Microsoft is paying $20 million to settle FTC allegations that the company violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by collecting personal information from children who signed up for its Xbox gaming system without theirs inform parents or obtain parental consent and has unlawfully retained children’s personal information.
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Under a proposed order the Justice Department has filed on behalf of the FTC, Microsoft must take several steps to strengthen the privacy of children using its Xbox system. For example, the order will extend COPPA protections to third-party game publishers with whom Microsoft shares children’s data.
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COPPA requires online services and websites directed to children under the age of 13 to inform parents of personal information that they obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting and using personal information from children.
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In order to access and play games on an Xbox console or use other Xbox Live features, users must create an account that requires providing personal information, including their first and last name, email address, email email address and date of birth required. Even if a user indicated they were under the age of 13, by the end of 2021 they were required to provide additional personal information, including a phone number, and to accept Microsoft’s Services Agreement and Advertising Policies, which will remain in effect until the end of 2021 enabled Microsoft to send advertising messages and share user data with advertisers, the complaint said.

Only after users provided this personal information did Microsoft ask anyone who said they were under the age of 13 to include their parents. (…) According to the complaint, from 2015 to 2020, Microsoft retained data it collected from children during the account creation process, sometimes for years, even when a parent was not involved.

Epic Games had previously been pinned for the same reasons

SO Microsoft broke the lawso users can do this Create an account that shows they are under the age of thirteen without forcing them to involve a parent or a legal guardian. If Microsoft obviously did Made compliant with COPPA law in late 2021the constructor took some time to change its methods. However, the company is far from the company to regret the most. In December 2022, The FTC condemned Epic Games Pay $520 million of that 275 million for COPPA violations alone. Now you can create with Epic Child specific accounts for Fortnite, Fall Guys and Rocket League. The future will tell us if Microsoft, for its part, does the same and creates Xbox accounts specifically for the youngest.

“We have failed to meet customer expectations and are committed to complying with the FTC’s order.”

As we said before, the Vice President of Xbox Gamer Services Dave McCarthy published a Microsoft blog postWhere is he recognizes the company’s mistake.

Unfortunately, we have not met our customers’ expectations and we are committed to complying with FTC directives to further enhance our security measures. We believe we can and should do more, and we will stay true to our commitment to the security, privacy and protection of our community.

However, he remains very cautious about this statement Microsoft did not knowingly break the law. If Microsoft hadn’t deleted the children’s data within the required time, it believed it had done so due to a “technical issue” that has since been resolved. He states that these dates were removed and never used, shared or monetized.

The Xbox Games Showcase takes place at 7 p.m. Sunday, just before Starfield Direct, which will showcase Bethesda’s next big RPG.