Disney, ViacomCBS (formally Viacom) and other companies have agreed to limit data collection and behavioral advertising techniques in children's apps, to settle privacy lawsuits brought by parents.
“Children will be protected from advertising based on any past online activities or any previously collected data in the subject app or anywhere else on the internet,” class counsel writes in papers filed last week with U.S. District Court Judge James Donato in San Francisco.
“No personal data collected from a current app session can be used in any manner to target that user in future sessions in the same app, across other apps, or elsewhere on the internet,” the lawyers write in a motion asking Donato to grant the deal preliminary approval.
The plaintiff's attorneys expect to seek more than $9 million in fees and expenses.
The companies said in April that they had agreed to resolve the lawsuits, but details of the settlements were only unveiled until last week.
The potential settlement stems from three lawsuits dating to 2017, when parents whose children played gaming apps sued a host of businesses -- including Disney, Viacom, gaming developer Kiloo, and outside ad tech companies for allegedly violating young children's privacy by harvesting their data for ad-targeting purposes.
The complaints, brought in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleged that a number of gaming apps -- including Disney's
Princess Palace Pets and Nickelodeon's
Llama Spit Spit, based on a game featured in
Game Shakers -- were embedded with tracking software from mobile ad-tech companies.
The parents said the ad-tech companies collected identifiers (like the Android Advertising ID) as well as data used for device fingerprinting (including the user’s language, time zone, and mobile network).
The following year, the parents also named Comscore and Twitter's MoPub as defendants.
The parents claimed the companies violated a principle prohibiting "intrusion upon seclusion" -- which involves violating people's expectations of privacy in a "highly offensive" way.
The parents specifically alleged that the companies designed apps "to surreptitiously obtain, improperly gain knowledge of, review, and/or retain" users' activity.
The class-action complaint also contended that the alleged data collection violated a California privacy law as well as the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. The federal law prohibits web companies from collecting personal data from children under 13 without their parents' consent.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which is tasked with enforcement, has said persistent cookies and device identifiers fall within the law's definition of personal data.
The
Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) doesn't empower individuals to sue for damages, but the parents argued that law's restrictions prove that the alleged data collection practices are "highly offensive."
Most of the companies that were sued allegedly engaged or facilitated behavioral advertising.
By contrast, the allegations against Comscore focused more on its alleged market research techniques. That company's ScoreCardResearch allegedly embedded tracking code for market research purposes in Disney's “Where's My Water?” app.
The propsed settlement requires Comscore to take steps aimed at insuring it isn't collecting data from children.
Disney, Viacom and the other companies previously urged Donato to dismiss the case, arguing that the alleged tracking didn't cause any concrete injury.
Donato rejected that argument last year, citing shifting privacy norms.
“Current privacy expectations are developing, to say the least, with respect to a key issue raised in these cases -- whether the data subject owns and controls his or her personal information, and whether a commercial entity that secretly harvests it commits a highly offensive or egregious act,” Donato wrote.
Source: MediaPost.
From
USA Herald:
Disney, Viacom to settle child privacy class-action lawsuit
The Walt Disney Company, along with Nickelodeon, the parent company of Viacom, and others have agreed to settle with parents who filed a 2017 class-action lawsuit against them.
The agreement has been submitted to U.S. District Court Judge James Donato in the Northern District of California. The class-action complaints were brought by parents for violations of their children’s privacy rights.
There have been several high-profile cases regarding privacy concerns lately. Online users’ private data is at risk of being harvested for advertising purposes, and it would seem that even children are not safe.
The defendants here are a group of media and tech companies who have agreed to change how children’s data is collected and how it is used across their apps and games. And to practice new and stricter business practices to assure compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
The lawsuit against Viacom, Walt Disney Company, and others alleges that the personal data of children was misused. Data is collected when children download and play the defendants’ apps and games. Embedded advertising software then gathers and sends the data to networks of advertisers.
The advertising networks use that data to target children. Both the gaming app developers and their ad partners share the revenue generated from the alleged breach of privacy.
“Current privacy expectations are developing, to say the least, with respect to a key issue raised in these cases — whether the data subject owns and controls his or her personal information, and whether a commercial entity that secretly harvests it commits a highly offensive or egregious act,” Judge Donato said last year when he ruled the case should go forward.
The plaintiffs issued a statement calling the settlement an “excellent result.” They feel certain that the agreement to restrict the collection and use of children’s data will affect “fundamental principles” reinforcing COPPA and further protect children from being exploited online for marketing purposes.
The parents are hopeful that the restrictions on the apps named in the suit will set a precedent. And can be used against the developers of thousands of other apps and games that harvest private data as a marketing tool.
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From
Teller Report:
Disney and Nickelodeon promise to collect less data from children
Disney, Nickelodeon parent company Viacom and a number of other companies have reached a settlement in a case regarding the collection of children's data through apps and games, Law360 reports Thursday. The companies promise to collect less data from children.
The media companies agreed to restrictions on advertising and data collection in apps primarily aimed at children. These restrictions apply specifically to six apps, but can affect thousands of other apps and games.
American Amanda Rushing went to court last year, as many Nickelodeon and Disney mobile games collected her child's data. This data was used to show targeted advertisements.
The lawsuit is a so-called class action, or group claim, in which several parents could join. According to the parents, the companies broke the law because they never explicitly asked for permission to collect their children's data.
The parents call the settlement an "excellent result". According to them, the settlement causes some minor changes, but they affect "fundamental principles". This concerns the restriction of the collection and use of children's data and the setting of stricter requirements.
In addition, the parents say that the restrictions for these six apps can be used as a means of coercion against the makers of thousands of other apps and games.
The companies have not yet responded to the settlement.
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More Nick: Nickelodeon Upfront 2020 Roundup!
Originally published: Tuesday, August 4, 2020.
Additional source: nuul.
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