The Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU), a self-regulatory advertising unit approved by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and administered by the Council of Better Business Bureaus, recently found issues with the advertising approach taken by two mobile applications for kids: KleptoCats and My Talking Tom.
CARU monitors advertising and privacy practices and determines whether such practices are in compliance with its guidelines as well as with the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA.)
On March 6, 2019, CARU recommended that Outfit7 Ltd. to modify its “My Talking Tom” app to better disclose advertising content, and prevented inappropriate ads from displaying.
CARU also found that mobile app developer HyperBeard with the app KleptoCats was monitoring children in violation of DAA Principles and CARU’s guidelines.
The two companies reacted differently to CARU’s recommendations. In the first case, the company agreed to comply with CARU’s recommendations. In the second instance, the company failed to answer and participate in CARU’s recommended self-regulation practices. As an outcome, on March 5, 2019, CARU referred the mobile app developer HyperBeard to the FTC for failure to participate in the self-regulatory review process looking into its data privacy practices related to children and advertising.
In this second instance, the referral could lead to company substantial monetary penalties as a result of the FTC’s enforcement action. See here another recent FTC settlement of $5.7 million with Musical.ly, which also originated from CARU’s referral.
Press release Self-Regulatory Watchdogs Refer App Developer HyperBeard to Federal Trade Commission is available at http://www.asrcreviews.org…
Press release CARU’s Not Kitten Around During Review of Outfit7’s ‘My Talking Tom’ App, Recommends Modifications; Company Says It Will Do So is available at http://www.asrcreviews.org…
More on Musical.ly, Inc. proceeding is available at https://www.technethics.com…
More on COPPA is available at https://www.technethics.com…
For more information on how privacy to implement privacy policies in your business, contact Francesca Giannoni-Crystal. Thanks to Federica Romanelli.