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New York Fines Viacom, Mattel and Hasbro For Tracking Kids Online (usatoday.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the online-playground dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from USA Today: Companies that operate popular kids websites like nickjr.com and barbie.com agreed to a $835,000 settlement and to change their practices after an investigation found the sites were enabled with technology that tracked kids' internet activities. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced his office reached settlements with Viacom, Mattel, Hasbro and JumpStart Games after an investigation into the companies found violations of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. The investigation, called "Operation Child Tracker," found that websites operated by the companies enabled third-party vendors, such as marketing and advertising companies, to track children's online activity -- which violated federal law. Federal law prohibits the unauthorized collection of children's personal information on websites aimed at children under age 13. Viacom will pay $500,000; Mattel will pay $250,000; and JumpStart will pay $85,000. [Hasbro will not pay a penalty because it is part of a "safe harbor program" through the Federal Trade Commission that already requires more disclosures of web activity, Schneiderman said.]

49 comments

  1. Best option for not being tracked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    So setting my birth date to something like 2010 is all I need to do to keep those web and app trackers off my back? awesome!

    1. Re:Best option for not being tracked by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      So setting my birth date to something like 2010 is all I need to do to keep those web and app trackers off my back?

      Correct. The tradeoff is that most websites won't let you create an account or use their site.

    2. Re: Best option for not being tracked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      well you wont be tracked at websites _aimed_ at children.

      so really, no. it will help you on a handful of sites.

    3. Re:Best option for not being tracked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes and have a love for Barbi dolls

  2. Why is this a law? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What is the reason for this law?

    Why is there an age limit?

    1. Re:Why is this a law? by sexconker · · Score: 4, Informative

      Because think of the children.

      Fucking horseshit. I don't want to be tracked. It shouldn't matter how old I am.

    2. Re:Why is this a law? by BitterOak · · Score: 2

      What is the reason for this law?

      Why is there an age limit?

      Because adults are old enough to give consent, and children aren't. Do you really want the government/nanny state holding your hand all your life?

      --
      If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
    3. Re:Why is this a law? by maglor_83 · · Score: 2

      But we are never asked for consent.

    4. Re:Why is this a law? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      Fucking horseshit. I don't want to be tracked. It shouldn't matter how old I am.

      COPPA doesn't say you can't be tracked. It says personal identifying information cannot be collected and stored. So if someone is under 13, a website cannot ask for their full name, their home address, their phone number, etc.

      The reason this doesn't apply to adults, is because if adults don't want them to have this information, they (presumably) have enough maturity and judgement to NOT GIVE IT TO THEM.

    5. Re:Why is this a law? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      But we are never asked for consent.

      You are often asked for your real name, address, email, phone number, etc. If you type that information into the little text box, and click "submit", then you are consenting. If you click "Login with Facebook" then you are consenting.

      If you are under 13, they are not allowed to ask for that information, and you are not allowed to have a Facebook account. My daughter has had a Facebook account since she was 8, but she lied about her age.

    6. Re:Why is this a law? by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      Well be happy then because this is not about all children, just the spawn of the rich and their being exposed from a young age as being real arse holes. Consider the real track record of career con artists politicians and their real child hold history being exposed. So order to protect the corrupt spawn, all children are given some limited whishy washy protection. So for example were the forced to delete the information and was this proven by auditing all their information storage onsite and offsite, or did they not bother with that and threatening executives with custodial sentences should they fail that audit.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    7. Re:Why is this a law? by wierd_w · · Score: 4, Interesting

      When a site is presumptuous, and says I have to give them that info before they will cough up a download link, or let me see a page, I give them fictitious shit, usually with subtle hints that I don't like what they are doing, like "no@youdontneedthis.org" or something similar.

      If they only want to give me the the link via email, I give them the shit email sewer I use for spam, and then never go back to them again afterwards.

      If they blast me with cross site tracking super cookies, I blacklist them with no script and ghostery.

      I know they take notice of this, because many have started complaining to me that they needs the ad monies. They can get the ad monies from me if they stop using cross site tracking. I don't mind cookies inside their site, or curated ads that don't fire off malicious scripts from north Korea. It is when they are a combination of lazy and entitled, where they just out any old shit ad from any advert whore network, pushing any old JavaScript and any old image type (no really, when you embed an .emf and a .tiff, it is obvious what you are doing, and it is not serving me an ad.) I feel the need to remind them that they need to be more considerate themselves.

      I don't want them to warehouse data about me. At all. Ever.

      This is not hard, but the insatiable hunger for more and more personal data to use in big data analytics needs to stop, and these clowns don't want it to. They are so used to just collecting it, that the idea that it us illegal to collect from children never dawned on them.

      It is a stark wakeup call to the extent of the problem.

    8. Re:Why is this a law? by allo · · Score: 1

      > they (presumably) have enough maturity and judgement to NOT GIVE IT TO THEM.
      [citation needed]

    9. Re:Why is this a law? by allo · · Score: 1

      If consent is that easy for you, i do not want to be your girlfriend.

      Just because i give you my name, that doesn't mean i give you any right to use it for something. You need to ask me, what you may use it for. Then we can get to an agreement. What do you think, why there are long and unreadble ToS? Because without, the companies would NOT be allowed to use your name, even when you enter it on their website.

  3. Ironic ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... since they're all bastions of crony capitalism (i.e. amalgamated with government). The government spies on kids (and everyone else) with impunity.

    1. Re:Ironic ... by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Governments all over the world prefer to have the monopoly on violence, why not on spying, too?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  4. What about the adults ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now they just need to do the same for adults !

    1. Re: What about the adults ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And they should start with Google.

  5. Tracking Anyone Should Be Illegal by zenlessyank · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It is called stalking. Just because you do it via the internet doesn't mean jack.

    1. Re:Tracking Anyone Should Be Illegal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is called stalking. Just because you do it via the internet doesn't mean jack.

      This. Being stalked should not be a payment option.

    2. Re:Tracking Anyone Should Be Illegal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you should be illegal

    3. Re:Tracking Anyone Should Be Illegal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is called stalking.

      Sure, if you or I do it - but these are billion-dollar corporations, for them it's just a "regulatory oversight".

    4. Re:Tracking Anyone Should Be Illegal by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      In some countries I am. What's your point?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  6. TPP by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    TPP will let them use non us court to over rule this.

    1. Re:TPP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... non-US court ...

      IANAL but it's obvious the TPP won't allow one member nation to decide the laws for all other member nations: No way in hell would the USA join that party.

      The point of the TPP is to give corporations the same power as a state government and forcing the 'more rights than individuals' judgements into the law of several countries at once.

    2. Re:TPP by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      TPP eliminates nations from the equation. Basically "what's good for the economy is good for you" becomes the new creed, for "the economy" will also be the entity to decide what's right and what isn't.

      And that one is certain: Consumer rights are certainly BAD for the economy!

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  7. Russians did it by geek · · Score: 1

    Clearly these companies haven't been paying attention. They could have just blamed the Russians and all would be fine.

  8. Under TPP corporations can sue to overturn by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    TPP is Evil and wants to track your kids and do unspeakable things to them.

    Here endeth the lesson.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  9. I'm surprised the law passed by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    when the same discussion was had over advertising to kids on TV laws to curtail it got shut down hard. I guess everything is scarier if you add "The Internet" to it.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  10. Repeated crime by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... the unauthorized collection of children's personal information ...

    Until the government forces a reporting/auditing system on corporate behaviour, like the US Sarbanes-Oxley act was meant to be, this crime will be repeated. It will get worse, since future parents will give their children a social profile at kindergarten.

    1. Re:Repeated crime by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're not catching the spin here.

      The Primary objective of regulation is to enable the too big to fail, chosen by god, king, and country businesses to pay ridiculously small sums of capital to gain effective market advantages over smaller and mid-sized businesses which enable them to stay ridiculous sizes. If you are a regulator, you are the hired help of the mafia. This is the problem with lieing; once it's become the new reality, everyone accepts it and the damage it does as normal.

      You know what's effective and costs nothing to do? Sheriffs bring about the charges, and we put the executives and directors on trial in-front of a jury, as a group. Now they can come to court with a root-cause analysis, an apology, argue the regulation is unjust and bring empirical evidence, open their companies up to the scrutiny of the jury, offer the jury some kind of program for concessions. Or, they can be barred for, I would say, at least half a decade to up to the rest of their lives, from ever being in a managerial or supervisory position at a public company or owning a private business because they have proven themselves incapable of satisfying the public trust on paper and in-front of a jury.

  11. the evil glares must be killer by bobmajdakjr · · Score: 1

    Hasbro getting that get out of jail free card lol. Yey for them more ponies for me.

  12. Where's my cut? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just wondering.

  13. let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So it's not OK for Viacom, Mattel, Hasbro and JumpStart Games to track kids, but it's quite OK for Google to track both kids and non-kids to a degree that makes those companies look like rank amateurs?

    Shouldn't we start by fining the biggest offenders, and then deal with the lesser ones? Google knows shit about your kids that Mattel hasn't even dreamed about.

    1. Re:let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Google pays their democracy fees up front and actively recruits members to the leftist cult.

  14. USA (corp) is *proposing* it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    " it's obvious the TPP won't allow one member nation to decide the laws for all other member nations"

    He said "NON-US", you said "OTHER NATION".
    TPP creates an international tribunal court of corporate lawyers who decide, and their decisions overrule USA laws. Including any "cannot track children" law. It doesn't matter the intention of the law, it only matters if it affects corporate trade rights. So Hasbro can claim it affects them, it clearly does, they can make profit off those kids, and so the kangaroo corp court rules in their favor and the USA law is annulled.

    1. Re:USA (corp) is *proposing* it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... corporate trade rights.

      Who decides that corporations have a right to monetize or enslave the vulnerable members of society? Since one person can't do all things, we are all vulnerable to corporate malfeasance at one time or another. Enabling and excusing such malfeasance breeds a world of little dictators. (I don't mean the Charlie Chaplin movie.)

      ... the USA law is annulled.

      Time to start a corporation called Murder Inc. (Guess what they sell?) and offer a discount on corporate lawyers.

  15. nuke new york by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    wipe out the fascist cancer before it spreads

  16. So what if kids use an Android phone? by transporter_ii · · Score: 1

    What if kids use an Android phone and now you *can't* turn off tracking? Can Google be sued? Google is passing location info to apps, so that is "online." And I would say this is partly offline tracking as well, and much more sinister than simply tracking kids in order to serve them adds. This is your child's physical location.

    --
    Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, religion destroys spirituality
    1. Re:So what if kids use an Android phone? by transporter_ii · · Score: 1

      Server them ads. I wish posts could be edited. :)

      --
      Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, religion destroys spirituality
  17. really hitting them where it hurts by z0idberg · · Score: 5, Informative

    Viacomm 2015 gross earnings $6.18 billion.
    $500,000 fine.

    Mattel 2015 gross earnings $2.8 billion.
    $250,000 fine.

    For an individual earning $100,000 gross income that equates to roughly to $8 and $9 fines respectively*. That will really teach them to think twice about breaking federal law by enabling tracking of children through their sites. What a joke.

    * that's assuming the individual is taxed at the same rate as the corporations. Which they aren't. So the relative amount is even lower.

    1. Re:really hitting them where it hurts by PingSpike · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Awhile back Hasbro or Mattel got into hot water, well, slightly warm water for shipping lead painted toys to kids. The end result was that regulations were passed where toy makers had to have independent labs test for lead. This is an onerous cost to small toy makers and a lot of hobby sellers, etc complained about it to no avail. Mattel and the other big toy makers, who were the cause of the laws creation were made exempt from this, the reason being was that they were large enough to have their own in house labs to test. Even though they already proved they don't.

  18. COPPA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wow, COPPA actually got enforced for once. I've seen it thrown around several times on online forums, but usually to keep 13 year olds out.

    1. Re:COPPA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Back in my days of using BYOND, there were multiple problems with spammers, DDOSers, and outright theft of developed games. The admins refused to do anything about it, and I told them "You have 24 hours to do something or else I start causing problems."

      When they deleted the post, I immediately tipped off the powers that be to their lack of COPPA compliance and multiple IP holders to copyright infringement. End result, place got smacked really hard, multiple games got pulled, and I'm certain they got a few fines as well. Things got serious about a week later. Do I regret it? No I didn't. If they didn't care about their users, I don't see why I should care about them.

      COPPA does get enforced. Reporting violations is a good way to screw over a site lightning fast.

  19. Why limit it to kids? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    What's the difference between tracking kids and tracking adults? When did tracking become a legal equal to fucking?

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  20. Pathetic Fine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    less than $1 Million dollar fine.

    If this were a speeding ticket, it would be for 83 cents.

    The companies keep breaking the law and saying opps sorry because they still make money even after paying the fines.

    Now if the fine had been $835 Million, then EVERY company would sit up, take note, and stop this crap, because that fine would be a HUGE deterrent for similar crimes by companies.

  21. Can we have an option, not to be tracked at all? by allo · · Score: 1

    Why should somebody over 18 be tracked? I send a Do-Not-Track Bit and want the companies to respect it.

  22. These laws are very strict by jordan314 · · Score: 2

    I'm not arguing against the spirit of these laws, but it's easy to break them without being nefarious. Including google analytics on a site, common practice in the web industry, with the track demographic data checkbox checked is enough to break these laws.