Microsoft has been fined a whopping $20 million for illegally collecting the personal data of children on its Xbox platforms.
While this issue was resolved by 2021, the FTC still takes issue with Microsoft's former policies on Xbox, which made children under the age of 13 provide a phone number and other personal information to the gaming platform. Until 2019 as well, a child signing up to Xbox would have also had to check a box which shared their data with advertisers.
In its response, Microsoft claims that it is committed to making sure its users have a secure experience on Xbox. Dave McCarthy, CVP of Xbox Player Services has blamed the retention of child data on a glitch. He said the following:
"During the investigation, we identified a technical glitch where our systems did not delete account creation data for child accounts where the account creation process was started but not completed," he said. "During the investigation, we identified a technical glitch where our systems did not delete account creation data for child accounts where the account creation process was started but not completed."
As well as pay the $20 million fine, Microsoft will also have to inform parents that creating a separate account for their child will help protect their privacy, maintain systems to delete all personal data taken from children, and notify game publishers that personal information from children will require certain protections.