‘Family Guy’ Game Developer Settles $300k Lawsuit for Collecting Childrens’ Personal Info

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TinyCo., the developer for the recently released “Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff” mobile game, has agreed to pay $300,000 in a settlement for charges stemming from their violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA.)

The San Francisco-based video game studio saw charges brought against them by the United States Federal Trade Commission for the unlawful collection of children’s personal information.

TinyCo. has also agreed to delete the illegally-obtained information and submit a report to the FTC that details the measures it has taken to ensure future compliance.

“As people–especially children–move more of their lives onto mobile devices, it’s important that they have the same consumer protections when they’re using an app that they have when they’re on a website,” Jessica Rich, FTC Bureau of Consumer protector direct, said in a statement. “Companies should take steps as they build and test their apps to make sure that children’s information won’t be collected without a parent’s consent.”

The games with violations that TinyCo. created and run are: Tiny Pets, Tiny Zoo Friends, Tiny Monsters, Tiny Village, and Mermaid Resort, which combined for more than 34 million downloads thus far, and sound like oodles of fun.

In a statement, TinyCo. said: “Today TinyCo. settled with the FTC over COPPA violations in some of our older games. We have worked with the FTC to correct these issues, and have removed all email addresses collected by our old in-game social identity system, some of which may have belonged to children under the age of 13.” Apparently 13 is the age where you’re allowed to be stalked and spammed.

They continued: “TinyCo. fully supports COPPA and the FTC’s effort to protect the privacy and data of children online. We apologize to anyone affected by this issue, and want to be unequivocal in stating that TinyCo. is fully committed to protecting user privacy, particularly when children are involved.”

The company closed their statement by clarifying that all TinyCo. games released since 2012 are strictly compliant with COPPA protections. These titles, which include the aforementioned “Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff,” are COPPA compliant and were not involved in the settlement.

[via GameSpot]