The complaints allege Epic collected voice and text data from Fortnite players under the age of 13 without their parent’s consent.
Fortnite-maker Epic Games has agreed to pay a massive $520 million fine in settlements with the Federal Trade Commission for allegedly illegally gathering data from children and deploying dark patterns techniques to manipulate users into making unwanted in-game purchases. The fines mark a major regulatory win for the Biden administration’s progressive-minded FTC, who, up until now, had largely failed to deliver on its promise of more robust reinforcement of U.S. tech companies.
The first $275 million fine will settle allegations Epic collected personal information from children under the age of 13 without their parent’s consent when they played the hugely popular battle royale game. The FTC claims that unjustified data collection violates the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. Internal Epic surveys and the licensing of Fortnite branded toys, the FTC alleges, show Epic clearly knew at least some of its player base was underage. Worse still, the agency claims Epic forced parents to wade through cumbersome barriers when they requested to have their children’s data deleted.
The FTC additionally took shots at Epic’s default privacy settings, which turn live voice and text communication on by default. That default settling allegedly led to children being linked up with teens and strangers online, who, in some cases then exposed the underage users to bullying, harassment and, “psychologically traumatizing issues,” including suicide. Employees at Epic allegedly expressed concern over harms stemming from that default privacy setting dating back to at least 2017.
