MediaPost

Jun 21, 2018 • Post A Comment

A class-action lawsuit against Disney has been expanded to include as defendants comScore and Twitter’s MoPub, among others, MediaPost reports, noting that the companies are being sued by a group of parents alleging privacy violations involving children.

“The class-action complaint, initially filed last August, alleges that Disney allowed outside companies to embed code that tracked young children who used apps like ‘Princess Palace Pets’ and ‘Where’s My Water?’ Those outside companies include Twitter, comScore, Upsight, Unity Technologies and Kochava, according to the new complaint,” MediaPost reports.

The report quotes the amended complaint, filed last week in U.S. District Court in Oakland, Calif., saying: “Unbeknownst to parents and their children, Disney — in partnership with (other) defendants — collects and exfiltrates personal data as users play the Disney gaming apps.”

MediaPost adds: “The parents allege that the data collected from children includes identifiers like Apple’s ‘ID for Advertisers’ and Android’s ‘Advertising ID,’ and information that can be combined with other data to ‘fingerprint’ smartphones — like the brand, operating system, network carriers and the name assigned to the devices by users.”

“Permitting technology companies to obtain children’s persistent identifiers exposes those children to targeted advertising,” the complaint states.

The complaint is alleging violation of privacy laws in California, New York and Massachusetts, along with the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.