FTC Fines Music App For Collecting Kids' Info

The FTC fined Musical.ly app, with its online library TikTok, $5.7 million for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection (COPPA) by collecting personal information from kids without parental consent. More than 200 million people – 65 million of them in the U.S. – downloaded the Musical.ly app to create videos and synchronize them with popular songs and to interact directly with each other that were defaulted to "public" viewing. Parents have become concerned with public reports that adults have used the Musical.ly app to contact children. The app required users to provide their email address, phone number, full name, username, a profile picture, and a short bio. However, before July 2017, the app did not request user’s age and subsequently didn’t go back and request age information for people who already had accounts. Andersen Sleater Sianni attorneys represent individuals who have had their privacy violated. Click here to read more about Musical.ly-TikTok.