Slashdot Mirror
Google To Refund $19M In In-App Purchases Made By Kids
An anonymous reader writes "Google has agreed pay $19 million to refund customers unfairly charged for in-app purchases made by children without authorization from their parents. The company has agreed to change its billing practices to ensure that it obtains informed consent from customers before charging them for items sold within mobile apps, according to the FTC. "For millions of American families, smartphones and tablets have become a part of their daily lives," said FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez. "As more Americans embrace mobile technology, it's vital to remind companies that time-tested consumer protections still apply, including that consumers should not be charged for purchases they did not authorize.""
Mom downloads a "free" game for their kid. Mom hands phone to kid to play "free" game. The mom shouldn't wind up with thousands of dollars in a bill.
I guess I'm going to have my kids buy all the in-app purchases from now on.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
$19 million to Google.... simply good PR at a bargain.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
I have kids...I'm not a moron...I didn't save my password. It prompts me for each purchase.
I have no idea how they lost this.
Well, let's see, could it be because they didn't always offer the options that you think are so great now??
From TFA:
The FTC's complaint against Google says that when the company initially introduced in-app purchases in 2011, buyers did not have to input their passwords. When the company implemented the requirement the following year, Google did not tell users that entering a password triggered the opening of a 30-minute window where the password would not need to be entered again when making a purchase.
Since then, Google has added more password protection options, letting users control how often they need to input a password: every time they make a purchase, every 30 minutes, or never.
It doesn't take a moron to get caught in a situation where they don't offer the reasonable options you mention, or don't clearly warn you that it's a "free-for-all" for purchases for 30 minutes.
Frankly -- everytime Slashdot runs an article like this, a bunch of ACs (mostly) come out of the woodwork who want to "blame the victim." And yes -- that is precisely what you are doing. Taking money from someone without their express authorization is THEFT. I don't care if you are some app programmer who makes 90% of your profits off of ill-advised in-app purchases. It's wrong, unless you are damn sure that the purchase is authorized..
I don't care about the kids argument. As an ADULT, I don't want purchases without confirmation to be a default unless I expressly authorize it. For developers out there -- the moral thing to do in any system where you are going to take money from someone is to at least allow them to confirm that they want you to take it... at least once (probably twice). There's nothing wrong with offering an option, a la Amazon's "one-click" check-out, for people who OPT IN, but that is precisely what it should: a screen popping up and saying explicitly, "You are about to authorize password-less purchases for forever/next 30 minutes/whatever!! Please type in your password again and check this box if you agree you REALLY want this!"
Everyone around here seems to get offended in other situations where people "blame the victim" or where technology doesn't offer "opt-in." When someone's gonna take your money, you damn well should have a system that is opt-out by default.
Google didn't clearly have all of this a few years ago. Hence, they were taking money from people without permission. Hence, they should definitely give it back if people request it. This has nothing to do with kids or bad parents or morons or whatever -- it's basic ethics that you don't get to take people's money if they didn't say you could.
Bet you if you had this happen to you, your song would change.
Please explain how "free" games need CC details and have billable items.
The Dictionary in front of me defines "free" as:
adverb
1.
without cost or payment.
"ladies were admitted free"
synonyms: without charge, free of charge, for nothing;
So how does a "free" game with a rating suitable for kids charge money?
If the app can bill, why does it have an age rating so low that person can not get a credit card?
Seriously, monthly hidden cell phone fees that "children" incur without permission probably vastly surpasses 19 million every month. Why hasn't the FTC done ANYTHING about that.
You don't need to buy anything to get golden cookies in Cookie Clicker. You get one for free every 6 to 10 minutes, which gets cut down to every 2 over the course of the game (Lucky day + Serendipity upgrades).
Or maybe I'm missing the point...
The concept of shareware, as originally envisioned by Buttonware back when the term was first coined, is that the software is totally available, and people should donate money in an honor system, if they wanted to support the software. Partially functional software that has to be paid for to get the whole use is called crippleware.
I agree, it's insane.
Google executives should be able to ride through cities on their pet tigers, sipping hundred year-old wine from their golden jewel-encrusted goblets, while shooting commoners in the head for sport. If an police officer approaches, they have the right to declare - "I am a Corporation - see my power, ye serfs, and prostrate thy selves, since I am immune to all laws!"
There's also something called trust. Children are not idiots (at least most of them.) Instead of giving the phone to your kids hoping they won't find the purchase button, tell them exactly where it is, what it does and that they are very specifically NOT allowed to tap on it. And that you'll receive an automatic email if they do (which is true at least for Apple) so that they can't hide it.
Worked for me - early versions of iOS had the same issue. Never had to complain. Additionnally, I respect my kids a little more now that I know I can trust them for this as well. And respect goes both ways.
Write boring code, not shiny code!