NY attorney general: Viacom, Mattel, Hasbro, and more violated online children’s protection act

My Little Pony’s motto is “friendship is magic.” In the real world, however, that motto translates to something like “private user data is money.”

Viacom, Mattel, Hasbro, and JumpStart — all companies that specialize in children’s toys and entertainment — have agreed to pay penalties relating to their violation of the privacy rights of minors, according to the office of New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman. The AG ran a two-year investigation called Operation Child Tracker that revealed the websites for popular brands like Barbie, Hot Wheels, NeoPets, and “dozens of others” employed software that could track the information of users who were under the age of 13. Under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), that type of data mining and sharing is illegal. And the NY AG claims it found clear evidence that the websites for these children’s properties were using games and other forms of entertainment to attract children who would then have their actions tracked and shared with third parties. Viacom, Mattel, Hasbro, and JumpStart have agreed to pay a combined fee of $835,000 as part of a settlement.