The Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have reached a settlement with WW International, formerly known as Weight Watchers, and their subsidiary Kurbo Inc. The settlement is regarding the Kurbo app, an application designed for children to use as a weight loss program. The app was marketed to children as young as eight years old, per an FTC release.
The app allowed children to track food intake, activity, and weight with a goal of showing the connection between these factors and the goal of weight loss. However, the app also collected personal information including names, email addresses and dates of birth. The app was originally designed to be signed up for by a minor over 13 years old, or by a parent signing up on behalf of a child. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Rule (COPPA) requires that applications that are child directed or knowingly collect children’s information notify parents and obtain their consent prior to collecting, using, or disclosing that information.
The DOJ and FTC accused WW of failing to provide a mechanism that confirmed the child was over 13 or that the additional consent step was actually being performed by a parent and was not the child completing the form on their own. The mandatory notice about information collection was also buried in a string of other notices, which did not comply with the rules in COPPA. Finally, the application retained children’s information indefinitely unless specifically requested by a parent, which does not comply with the minimal time necessary rules in COPPA.
The settlement requires that WW destroy personal information illegally obtained during the previous versions of the application, destroy any algorithms derived from the illegally obtained information, and pay a penalty in the amount of $1.5 million.
