February 27, 2019

Video social networking app reaches COPPA settlement with FTC

The Federal Trade Commission announced that the video social networking app, Musical.ly (now called Tik Tok), has agreed  to pay $5.7 million to settle allegations that the company violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by collecting personal information from children.  The FTC complaint alleges that the operators of Musical.ly failed to obtain parental consent before collecting information from children using the app, despite knowing that a significant percentage of users were under 13, and that even after receiving thousands of complaints from parents and closing the children’s accounts, the app’s operators did not delete the children’s videos or profile information. The settlement represents the largest civil penalty ever obtained by the FTC in a children’s privacy case.  

FTC press release | Complaint | Joint Statement of FTC Commissioners