Suits Against Viacom, Disney Allege Collection of Children's Data Without Permission
A San Francisco woman, who last week sued Disney and its advertising partners for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by collecting and tracking her child's activities and personal data through a mobile gaming app without parental consent,…
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filed a similar class-action-status-seeking lawsuit against Viacom and its partners Monday. Amanda Rushing alleged in the Disney and Viacom complaints (both in Pacer) that both companies "exfiltrated" her child's personal information while the youngster was playing smart phone app games. She alleged the companies were going to use it "for future commercial exploitation." The lawsuits said the companies and their ad tech partners collected persistent identifiers, which are unique numbers tied to a specific mobile device and user, that enabled them to track user activity over multiple apps, platforms and different devices. The suits said getting the "persistent identifiers associated with children exposes them to the behavioral advertising (as well as other privacy violations) that COPPA was designed to prevent." Disney said in a statement it has a "robust" COPPA compliance program and maintains "strict data collection and use policies for Disney apps created for children and families." It said the suit is based on a "fundamental misunderstanding" of the law. Viacom didn't comment.