Fortnite defaults getting bullied12/29/2023 ![]() ![]() "The Justice Department takes very seriously its mission to protect consumers’ data privacy rights," said Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta. "Protecting the public, and especially children, from online privacy invasions and dark patterns is a top priority for the Commission, and these enforcement actions make clear to businesses that the FTC is cracking down on these unlawful practices." "As our complaints note, Epic used privacy-invasive default settings and deceptive interfaces that tricked Fortnite users, including teenagers and children," said FTC Chair Lina M. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Going forward, the FTC said the gaming company must adopt strong privacy default settings for children and teens, ensuring that voice and text communications are turned off by default. Claims also suggested the company blocked accounts that tried to dispute the unauthorised charges. They also reportedly enabled real-time voice and text chat, leading to children being "bullied, threatened, harassed and exposed to dangerous and psychologically traumatizing issues such as suicide."Įpic Games were also said to have used "dark patterns to trick users into making purchases" and charged account holders without authorisation. The record-breaking settlements come to a total of $520m (£452.9m) after the company allegedly broke the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by collecting information from players under 13 without their parent's consent. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has hit the makers of Fortnite with a hefty half-a-billion-dollar settlement to resolve a pair of civil complaints.Įpic Games will pay a $275m (£225.9m) penalty for violating children’s privacy law and a further $245m (£1997.6m) in refunds for tricking users into making unwanted charges, according to the FTC's website.
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