Ftc deals a new slap to Microsoft (yes, it still has to do with the Xbox)
New dough for Redmond. Ftc (which has the Activision acquisition dossier on its desk) has fined Microsoft 20 million dollars for allegedly violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. Full details
The Federal Trade Commission, better known as Ftc, or the US antitrust, is once again putting a spoke in Microsoft's wheels. The entity, whose number 1 Lina Khan is under investigation by the United States House Committee on Oversight and Accountability (main investigative commission of the United States of America) following the accusations made against it by the now former commissioner Christine Wilson according to which the Khan allegedly abused his power to achieve desired objectives, as it is known he has already frozen the acquisition of Activision by the House of Redmond reserving the right to decide whether to consent or not. And, as if that weren't enough, he has now opened a new front.
THE NEW ROUND BETWEEN FTC AND MICROSOFT
The Ftc has in fact imposed a 20 million dollar fine on Microsoft by questioning the management of data from Xbox accounts opened by minors, a management that violates the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. ” reads Coppa, bogeyman of a growing number of software houses (the $ 520 million fine raised at the end of 2022 to Epic Games , the home of Fortnite , caused a sensation).
More specifically, Microsoft is accused of having archived some data referring to personal account information for a longer period of time than that required by the relevant legislation. The House of Redmond was therefore also called upon to correct these technical aspects.
Furthermore, according to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, several additional warnings have been provided to illustrate to parents the privacy protections designed specifically for accounts referring to minor users, with other consents to be provided for all profiles that were created before the 2021.
THE ADMISSION OF THE HOUSE OF REDMOND
Microsoft has already responded by admitting the error and speaking about a technical problem that would have lengthened the retention period of the data in question. However, the House of Redmond has ensured that the data, although stored illegally, have "never been used, shared or monetised".
"We are very sorry to report that we have not met user expectations, but we are committed to continuing to improve through new security measures," said Dave McCarthy , CVP of Xbox Player Services, on the official Microsoft Xbox blog . “We believe we can do more and will remain strongly committed to the security and privacy protection of our community.”
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/ftc-assesta-un-nuovo-ceffone-a-microsoft-si-centra-ancora-lxbox/ on Thu, 08 Jun 2023 05:06:28 +0000.