Amazon has agreed to pay a $25 million settlement to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over allegations of violating child privacy through Alexa. The company has been accused of violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by retaining sensitive information about children, such as their exact location and voice recordings, for several years.
The COPPA requires online services targeting children under 13 to get parental permission before collecting the child’s personal information. The law also allows parents to request the deletion of their child’s data.
The company had initially promised to delete voice data upon request and limit access to it. However, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) discovered that until September 2019, Amazon kept children’s recordings and transcripts indefinitely. In addition, the FTC found that Amazon failed to delete transcripts for a significant period and was still retaining voice information and geolocation data.
Regulators in the complaint said that the company violated the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act by retaining young people’s Alexa voice recordings indefinitely and using the data for business purposes, such as training its algorithm to understand children.
Amazon has responded to the FTC’s claims by saying that it “disagrees” and decided to settle to move forward.
The company maintains that Amazon Kids was created with COPPA regulations in mind and that parents have simple methods to remove recordings and transcripts from the web. Additionally, the company has committed to deleting inactive child profiles after 18 months to address the FTC’s concern about data retention.
Under the proposed settlement agreement, Amazon will have to delete voice recordings, exact location data of children, and inactive Alexa accounts belonging to children. The agreement also prevents Amazon from providing false information about how it manages voice recordings, location data, and children’s data.
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