Children’s Privacy on the Line as NM Attorney General Sues App Creator for COPPA Violation

Last week, New Mexico’s Attorney General filed a lawsuit against the creators and online advertisers of Fun Kid Racing, an app where children race virtual cars using animal cartoon characters. The app, created by Tiny Lab Productions, has been downloaded by millions of users, a huge majority of whom are children.

New Mexico’s attorney general, Hector Balderas, filed suit against app maker, Tiny Lab Productions, including Google, Twitter, and three more online ad companies of a COPPA violation, by allowing hackers, predators, or online marketers access to personal data of more than 13 million children, and by misleading consumers by including the application in the family section of the app store.

A New York Times article also reveals that a number of companies now track consumers via phones to build “behavioral profiles” to create tailored ads, like AdMob and MoPub. Researchers have observed that app developers are able to find a loophole to track users, by indicating that children are not the primary target for their apps. Recent research suggests that app developers may be motivated to mislabel apps as family-oriented rather than child-oriented, since such mischaracterization removes COPPA’s protective mantle and allows them to track users for targeted ads.

In response to the threat of online data collection that affects millions of children, both Apple and Google have introduced children- and family-oriented app sections on their stores, in 2013 and 2015, respectively. Both companies expressly prohibit tracking if an app is to be included in such section as part of their agreement with app developers. However, perhaps stronger measures are needed to protect children's safety.

Check out the New York Times article for more information.

CARU Speaks at Community Board in Manhattan

CARU staff attorney Andra Dallas gave a presentation to Community Board 1, serving lower Manhattan on Monday, December 7 th . Andra spoke to the Board’s Youth Committee about the importance of teaching children about understanding advertising and safe online practices. District Manager Noah Pfefferblit remarked, “thank you for your informative presentation to our Youth Committee members,” and offered the Board’s assistance if they “can be helpful to the important efforts at the Children's Advertising Review Unit.” Are you interested in having a CARU staff member visit your community board? Contact adallas@caru.bbb.org.

i-Dressup Shuts Down in Wake of Privacy Breach and COPPA Violation

I-Dressup, a fashion-themed social website for teens, has completely shut down as part of a settlement with the New Jersey Department of Consumer Affairs, following a massive privacy breach and violations of the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and New Jersey state law. In September 2016, a hacker sent 2.2 million i-Dressup account credentials to technology blog Arstechnica as well as to haveibeenpwned.com, a searchable online database of data breaches. Responding to the news, New Jersey investigators discovered that 2,519 of the compromised accounts belonged to New Jersey children below age 13. I-Dressup, allegedly aware that it had child users, had violated COPPA by failing to obtain verifiable parental consent prior to collecting and processing personal information from the children, including first and last names and email addresses. In a consent decree with the New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Gerwal, parent company Unixiz has closed i-Dressup,

Kids Internet Design and Safety Act Seeks to Protect Children from Harmful Online Content

United States Senators, Mr. Richard Blumenthal from Connecticut and Mr. Edward Markey from Massachusetts, introduced a new bill referred to as the Kids Internet Design and Safety Act (the “KIDS Act”). One of the Senator’s introducing the KIDS Act, Mr. Edward Markey, was the co-author of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”). The KIDS Act seeks to include noteworthy advertising rules and create new protections for children online, specifically for online users under the age of 16. The proposed advertising rules within the KIDS Act are to ban websites from: (1) exposing young online users to advertisements “with embedded interactive elements”; (2) recommending any content involving alcohol, nicotine, or tobacco to young online users; and (3) recommending content that includes influencer marketing, like unboxing videos, or host-selling to young online users. Additionally, the KIDS Act seeks to prohibit certain online features to protect children, like prohibiting

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