U.S. regulators have accused Weight Watchers of using a diet app to illegally collect information about children as young as eight, including their names, email addresses, and dates of birth, without their parents’ consent.
The complaint, filed Friday by the Justice Department on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission, says Weight Watchers and its subsidiary Kurbo — a children’s weight management platform — violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998, which requires parental consent to collect or use of any personal information of users under 13 years of age.
In 2018, Weight Watchers, rebranded as WW, acquired technology startup Kurbo Health and launched Kurbo by WW. The app’s release was met with criticism as it was designed for kids and teens between the ages of eight and 17.
Medical professionals and parents have argued that it was “irresponsible” for Weight Watchers to release the app and said it could encourage children to develop “life-changing eating disorders that will eventually kill some of them.”
The FTC alleged that the app’s registration process encouraged young users to falsely claim to be over 13, despite text telling children under 13 that they need with a parent.
The registration interface showed two options: “I am a parent. First, I will register so I can support my child in the Courbo program” and “I am at least 13 years old and use the application for myself, without parental supervision.”
The complaint stated: “While it was theoretically intended that users under the age of 14 would not be able without parental assistance, this non-neutral age signaled to children that they could register without parental involvement by indicating that they were at least 13 years old.
“In fact, from 2014 to 2019, hundreds of users who signed up on the app claiming to be over 13 later changed their birth dates on their profiles to indicate they were indeed under 13,” the post reads. FTC.
Although the enrollment option for children over 13 years of age was revised in 2020, the FTC argues that Courbeau nonetheless “failed to provide a mechanism to ensure that those who choose the enrollment option for parents were indeed the parents and not the child.” trying to bypass the age limit. “.
The FTC also charged Weight Watchers and Kurbo with holding children’s personal information indefinitely and “deleting it only at the request of parents.”
In a statement to CBS, Michael Colosi, general counsel for Kurbo, spoke out against the allegations. “Curbo has never targeted children with ads, sold data to third parties, or otherwise monetized its users, and neither parents nor children have ever complained that Courbo used their personal data inappropriately,” he said.
On Thursday, a federal judge in California approved a settlement order that requires Weight Watchers and Kurbo to pay a $1.5 million fine, delete sensitive health data, and destroy all algorithms derived from that data.
“Our order against these companies requires them to delete their ill-gotten data, destroy any algorithms derived from it, and pay a fine for violating the law,” Lina Khan, FTC Chair, said in a statement.
The $1.5 million settlement is simply a reflection of Kurbo’s “desire to focus on its business and its mission of continuing to help families and children in a safe and secure environment,” Colosi said.