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Amazon Will Refund Millions of Unauthorized In-App Purchases Made By Kids (techcrunch.com)
Amazon will refund millions of dollars worth of unauthorized in-app purchased made by kids, having dropped its appeal of last year's ruling by a federal judge who sided with the Federal Trade Commission in the agency's lawsuit against Amazon. "The FTC's original complaint said that Amazon should be liable for millions of dollars it charged customers, because of the way its Appstore software was designed -- that is, it allowed kids to spend unlimited amounts of money in games and other apps without requiring parental consent," reports TechCrunch. From the report: The issue had to do with the way the Amazon Appstore's in-app purchasing system worked. The Amazon Appstore is the store that comes preloaded on Amazon mobile devices, like Kindle Fire tablets, for example, though there is a way to load it onto other Android devices, too. In Amazon's Appstore, which launched back in 2011, the company didn't originally require passwords on in-app purchases. This allowed kids to buy coins and other items to their hearts' content. One particularly awful example involved a game called "Ice Age Village" that offered an in-app purchase of $99.99. Amazon introduced password-protected in-app purchases in March 2012, but then only on those where the purchase exceeded $20. In early 2013, it updated the system again to require passwords, but also allowed a 15-minute window afterwards where no password was required. The FTC said Amazon didn't obtain "informed consent" until July 2014. To make matters worse, parents complaining weren't told how to get a refund and Amazon had even suggested at times that refunds weren't possible, the FTC's complaint had said. More than $70 million in in-app charges made between November 2011 and May 2016 may be eligible for refunds, the FTC notes. It's not likely that all affected customers will take the time to make their requests, however.
yep.
I just got this answer on 2014 - http://imgur.com/a/vDDD2
Hi, I gave my child my credit card info and was surprised when they bought stuff online. I shouldn't be responsible!
Not what happened. What actually occurred here: back in the days a few years back before a lot of parents were experienced with tablets and even knew what an "in-app purchase" was, Amazon shipped out tablets and linked them to Amazon user accounts (which had credit card info attached).
Parents who had never made an in-app purchase and this couldn't even foresee the need to avoid them or warn kids against them suddenly found themselves with $300 bills for virtual "smurfberries" or whatever due to the unknowing actions of a 4-year-old playing a game that was advertised as FREE on Amazon's appstore.
In other words, this was a toy unlike any other parents had encountered, which would suddenly start charging parents more money without asking them. And, as noted in the summary, even after Amazon became aware of the problem, it didn't offer a setting to turn those purchases off for years... So even if a parent had the good sense to password protect app purchases themselves, the kids could still go make IN-app purchases with no notice.
That's pretty much the definition of non transparency in user settings, where the default should ALWAYS be "don't charge me money unless I confirm, and at least give me an option that requires me to confirm and authenticate EVERY time if I want."
Thank you! I was speaking as some kid in the 80s who was given a blank check by my parent and I sent it to Nintendo in Washington State filled out in 3rd grade cursive for a "NES with Mario 2 and hopefully Ninja Gaiden"
My mother got a call from NES because "that seemed odd".
I got the beating of my life.
And apple had it where you needed a password to install free apps and that same password or 15 min free for all let you BUY stuff as well.
It's like this cable system that used to have that mad you go though 1-2 buy/rent screens for a $0 VOD with cost $0.00 on them the same screens to rent a VOD PPV.
My credit card number is 0118 9998 1199 9119.
What does it say about me that I immediately realized you got a digit wrong there?
#DeleteChrome
It's more like you went to a car dealership once and bought some spare parts. Three years later your kid's riding by. They recognise him, hand him the keys to Ferrari then charge it to your card.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Looks like it's time to borrow your friends tablets for in-app purchase.
Get a semi-bright kid to read/explain the article to you, maybe then you'll have a chance of comprehending what is going on here.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
I'm glad you think breeding is bad. Keep thinking that.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
I'm disappointed that Amazon would let anyone spend $300 on "smurfberries" in the first place. The payment system should have some kind of sanity check in it... Or are there people who really spend that much on in-app purchases willingly?
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
So specifically, I ordered and Amazon Fire tablet. I bought it through Amazon's website. Once purchased, you can set up parental controls etc. on the device through Amazon's own website.
Except, it doesn't actually work.
It HAS to be set on the hardware itself as well.
I had my device set to require a password for any/all purchases. My 2 year old still managed to purchase "Trolls" when the ad went by on the screen, she never had to use a password.
Amazon reversed the charge almost immediately, and the rep. showed me where to lock purchases on the device itself, but I had ever reason to believe it had already been locked and what happened wasn't possible. The device settings locally did not match what Amazon said the device settings were via their site.
What if your cat kept pressing the dash button?
This is no accident. Does anyone think that? Do you really need to blame the user's behavior? I guess if you work for Amazon then you need to do that.
Yeah, I had the same problem with Kindle accounts. Kindle is purchased as a gift, but it gets automatically configured/bound to the account of the purchaser "as a convenience". This means that when I bought a kindle for my brother-in-law, I unlink it so that he wasn't getting my library/purchases/etc
" where the default should ALWAYS be "don't charge me money unless I confirm, and at least give me an option that requires me to confirm and authenticate EVERY time if I want.""
The whole "in app purchasE" model is based on fraud and technological illiteracy, mmo's, drm and 'buying fake goods' inside videogames takes advantage of human irrationality. Just look at what blizzard charges people for mounts for world of warcraft - a game you're already paying for if you are already a subscriber. The shit is unreal. It all comes down to the fact that the human mind didn't evolve to deal with computer tech, most people are irrational when making economic decisions and the whole "f2p" in app purchase model takes advance of it. It's basically gambling psychology taking advantage of the population with poor impulse control both kids and adults. The whole of modern gaming entertainment is sick and it began with mmo's/steam. AKA paying for corporate malware infected games.
More accurately it's based on operant conditioning and addiction.
The game provides rewards for doing tasks, and initially spots you some resources so you can do those tasks rapidly at no cost. Then once your initial supply is out you can "earn" more slowly through play but getting the same rewards requires progressively more resources over time, or you can buy more resources instantly with money.
Though that's not the only model. There are also playable demos where you pay to unlock the bulk of the content, and a la carte expansions where the core game is playable but optional content like additional levels, game modes or playable characters are availabe for a fee.
Another model that would make sense but generally doesn't get used is if you have a free viewer app for a content library where the content is priced on a "buy what you want to see" model. Like say if you could buy kindle books within the kindle app. Though app store rules on pricing have made most of those move to "you can access your library with the app but you have to buy from our webpage".