Amazon In Trouble As FTC Announces New Lawsuit For Gathering Kids’ Data Without Parental Consent From Alexa Speakers

Tech giant Amazon may see itself landing in hot water after a recent complaint was filed on behalf of the FTC against the company.

They alleged the multinational e-commerce firm of gathering data belonging to children illegally and without any form of consent attained by their parents. This was done through its famous Alexa-powered speakers.

Therefore, such behavior was deemed to be in clear violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Law so a complaint is being recommended that would soon lead to a legal case.

The data believed to have been collected included those below the age of 13 without them providing any parental consent which violated the Kids’ Online Privacy Protection Act.

This news was first reported by Bloomberg today which says that Justice Department may file the complaints after FTC’s recommendation on the subject and that may arise as early as next month after referral.

In case it ends up getting declined, the FTC may carry on with proceedings of its own.

Moreover, such cases were seen investigating Amazon for quite some time now so that could add more power to the allegations and enable this agency to take huge sums of money in the form of giant monetary penalties.

As of right now, the tech giant is selling a children’s version of the famous smart speaker called Echo. This provides the best subscription service that has a long curated selection of apps, books, and various other kinds of content too. And when such cases end up getting filed, the firm could argue that it was only complying with the laws outlined by COPPA.

But what sort of financial penalties can such a complaint bring forward?

The federal government could move ahead and collect a huge sum of money that is greater than $50,000 for the alleged violation of this children’s privacy act. And that may lead to even more significant penalties in cases of the past. But both Amazon and FTC are yet to comment on the matter or the case in question.

As recently reported by media outlet Politico, the agency says they’ve been busy with investigations of the firm and carrying out an anti-trust investigation for each part of their business too. This was in accordance with the directives of the chairman of FTC Lina Khan.

She was the first person to investigate the matter related to investigating all aspects of the business belonging to Amazon.


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