Microsoft has made an official announcement that it will pay a $20m penalty to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) as it was found guilty of collecting children info via gaming consoles without their valid consent.
Digging deep into the context, a lawsuit was slapped against the technology giant for collecting information of children playing games on Xbox Gaming Consoles. As it was against the Chil-dren’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) Protection rules and was being shared with the 3rd parties, a case was filed against the Windows OS giant in the court.
Upon launching an enquiry, the data watch dog of United States found that the Redmond based giant was collecting info related to avatars of kids, their biometrics and health related details.
So, the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection issued a penalty on the Satya Nadella led com-pany and after few hearings, the company agreed to take steps to bolster privacy protections to shield Xbox users who are aged below 13.
Meanwhile, on a separate note, Microsoft has announced that it will keep $425 million in re-serve to pay a latent penalty to the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) for violation of GDPR rules by its business subsidiary LinkedIn.
A spokesperson from the company added that the company has decided to set aside the amount in the 4th quarter of this fiscal year 2023. Till then, news is out that the company is intending to defend its stand on complying with the GDPR and will try to negotiate and reduce the penalty.
