FTC takes aim at Amazon's Alexa for illegally collecting kids' data
Amazon has a special Echo speaker and subscription service for kids with kid-friendly apps and books.
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The backstory: In 2019, children's advocacy groups, including Fairplay and the Center for Digital Democracy, called for an investigation into Amazon's smart speakers with virtual assistant Alexa. They accused Amazon of keeping voice recordings for too long and keeping personal data even when users try to delete it.
Amazon has a special Echo speaker and subscription service for kids with kid-friendly apps and books. But when the complaint was made, Amazon said that these products follow the rules of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
More recently: Google's YouTube got hit with a massive US$170 million fine in 2019 for gathering personal data from kids without their parent's approval. Even though this was the biggest fine the FTC ever gave to Google, it wasn't as big as the US$5 billion Facebook had to pay for a privacy violation that same year.
And just last December, the FTC slapped Epic Games, the creators of Fortnite, with a US$275 million fine for breaking the law on kids' privacy.
The development: Now, the FTC is reportedly considering suing Amazon over allegations that its Alexa-powered speakers have been collecting data from children under 13 years old without their parent's permission, which is a big no-no under the COPPA rules. The regulators believe that Amazon didn't do enough to make sure that parents were OK with their kids' data being collected and that most of the kids' apps on Alexa didn't have a privacy policy.
If the government decides to take legal action against Amazon, things could get pretty rough for the company. Other companies have been hit with fines of over US$50,000 for each violation of the privacy law in the past. But, so far, neither Amazon nor the regulators have released any official statements about the issue.
Key comments:
“Given that Amazon has the money to pay the best corporate privacy attorneys that money can buy, it seems really strange that this was done in such a way that it does violate COPPA in so many ways,” said Josh Golin, executive director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC), adding that Amazon’s system “does feel like it was designed to confuse parents,” rather than protect their children’s privacy.
“FreeTime on Alexa and Echo Dot Kids Edition are compliant with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act,” said an Amazon spokesperson in 2019.
“YouTube touted its popularity with children to prospective corporate clients,” said Joe Simons, the FTC chairman, in a statement when the FTC hit the platform with a hefty fine of US$170 million in 2019. “The company refused to acknowledge that portions of its platform were clearly directed to kids. There’s no excuse for YouTube’s violations of the law.”
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