OpenX Technologies Settles With the FTC For $2 Million
On December 15, 2021, the Federal Trade Commission announced a $2 million settlement with OpenX Technologies (“OpenX”) in connection with alleged violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Rule (“COPPA Rule”) and the FTC Act. According to the FTC’s complaint, OpenX knowingly collected personal information from children under age 13 without parental consent, and collected geolocation data from users of all ages who opted out of being tracked.
OpenX is an ad exchange that operates a real-time bidding (“RTB”) platform that sells ad inventory on participating websites and mobile apps. The FTC alleged that OpenX actively reviewed and identified hundreds of apps as “for toddlers,” “for kids,” “kids games,” or “preschool learning,” and included age ratings indicating that they were directed for children under 13. OpenX did not flag these apps and their data as being child-directed under COPPA, nor did it exclude the apps from participating in the company’s ad exchange. As a result, child users of these apps were improperly targeted with behavioral advertising.
