Disney has been sued. A lawsuit filed against the Walt Disney Company alleges that several dozen of its smartphone apps are illegally tracking and spying on children.
A new report claims that the Walt Disney Company (or simply "Disney") is facing a class-action lawsuit for allegedly dishonoring the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (or COPPA) that is governed by the Federal Trade Commission (or FTC).
The "privacy" law was created in 1998 and ratified by Congress two years later.
https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/privacy-and-security/children%27s-privacy
"The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) gives parents control over what information websites can collect from their kids. The COPPA Rule — with new provisions in effect on July 1, 2013 — puts additional protections in place and streamlines other procedures that companies covered by the rule need to follow. If you run a website designed for kids or have a website geared to a general
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As a consequence, Disney has the ability to collect personal information from a user such as their geographical location and internet browsing history. In turn, the information is often sold to third party entities for use in ad targeting.
The plaintiff, Amanda Rushing, of California, sued Disney on Aug. 3 in a San Francisco federal court. In addition to alleged breaches of privacy, the lawsuit claims that Disney and its affiliates failed to obtain proper legal consent from parents before they used the apps to target children for personalized advertising.
Disney responded to the pending class action lawsuit by defending its company practices, saying that it has not violated any COPPA rules or laws. Disney maintains that it has a "robust" COPPA program that supports compliance and takes the privacy of all its users -- especially that of children -- very