back to article 'Broken code' costs Yelp half a mil in child privacy dust-up with FTC

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has fined Yelp after accusing the reviews website of inappropriately gathering personal data on children. The FTC said Yelp and games maker TinyCo each allowed under-13s to register accounts without the explicit permission from their parents. The watchdog accused the pair of violating the …

  1. Mephistro
    Flame

    Dura lex sed lex...

    ... so, from the amount agreed in this settlement, it's clear this has nothing to do with "lex".

  2. DJV Silver badge
    FAIL

    Half a mil!

    Oops!

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Utterly pointless

    Does anyone think that COPPA actually protects any kid from anything? How many kids are stupid enough to tick the "13 our under" box, knowing what comes next? Typical fantasy from politicians, followed by a shakedown of anyone who doesn't herd the unicorns properly.

  4. Version 1.0 Silver badge

    FTC could eliminate the National Debt

    Keep this up and our national money woes are over!

    My daughter and her friends had signed up for accounts on FB, Disney and a host of other sites by the time she was eight without my explicit permission. Not that I gave a rats anyway - I was proud of the little tykes for figuring out that the systems were broken and working their way around the age verification checks.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Fined for collecting data....don't make me laugh....

    So Yelp gets a slap on the wrist.....while the NSA collects EVERYTHING it can lay its hands on, and almost no one cares. What am I missing here?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Fixed that for you

    "We apologize to anyone affected by this issue, and want to be unequivocal in stating that TinyCo is fully committed to protecting user privacy, particularly when our wallet is involved."

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like