Microsoft "bleed" $20 million to settle allegations of private storage of children's Xbox account data

CTOnews.com, June 6 (Xinhua) Microsoft will pay the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) a settlement of $20 million (CTOnews.com Note: currently about 142 million yuan) to resolve allegations that the company violated the Children's online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

According to a FTC press release, when users create Microsoft Xbox accounts by the end of 2021, Microsoft will ask the parents of players under the age of 13 to participate in the creation of the account and ask for some personal information. However, Microsoft "sometimes retains this personal data" even if parents do not complete the registration process, which is prohibited by COPPA.

Microsoft must also make some changes as part of a proposed order submitted by the Department of Justice (DOJ) on behalf of FTC. These changes include telling parents that "separate children's accounts will provide additional privacy protection", requiring parents to give consent to children's accounts created before 2021, and asking the system to delete the data necessary for children's accounts.

Microsoft responded by throwing the pot to technical problems. Microsoft Xbox Player Services's CVP Dave McCarthy said in a blog post that Microsoft did not delete the creation data of children's accounts due to a "technical glitch" and that the company had fixed the failure and deleted the data. "this data has never been used, shared or monetized," McCarthy said.