Playdom, Disney's social games division, has paid a $3 million settlement to the Federal Trade Commission, stemming from accusations of improper collection and distribution of children's personal information. The games in the accusation were operated by Acclaim, the publisher acquired by Playdom just prior to Disney's purchase of Playdom itself.
The FTC alleged that Acclaim did not comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act between 2006 and 2010. The titles collected children's email addresses and ages and posted that information without parental consent. Playdom has internal policies in place to prevent this from happening with its current titles.
The FTC estimates that 403,000 children registered for Acclaim's general game sites, with an additional 821,000 signing up for a game called Pony Stars. All Acclaim titles have since been shut down, with the exception of the Facebook game RockFree.
Playdom is now permanently barred from violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act again, and is not permitted to misrepresent “their information practices regarding children.”
"Let's be clear: Whether you are a virtual world, a social network, or any other interactive site that appeals to kids, you owe it to parents and their children to provide proper notice and get proper consent," said FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz. "It's the law, it's the right thing to do, and, as today's settlement demonstrates, violating COPPA will not come cheap."
[Via GI.biz]
