The developer of the well-known video game, Fortnite has agreed to pay $520 million to settle US regulators’ charges that the game violates user privacy rules and deceived players into making payments.
Fortnite, Child privacy & Deception
The Federal trade Commission says that the company used “deceptive interfaces” to trick users into buying things while the game was still loading. Furthermore, it was charged with employing “privacy-invasive” default settings.
The FTC announced Epic would pay $275 million to settle accusations it gathered child and teen data without parental authorization and exposed kids and teens to bullying and harassment by turning on voice and text conversations by default. This is a record fine for the consumer watchdog.
More than 400 million people worldwide play Fortnite, a battle royale game that shot to fame after its 2017 release. Although the game may normally be downloaded for free, it is funded through in-game sales of things like costume and dance techniques.
