United States of America: Filed FTC and DoJ lawsuit against Amazon for alleged violation of the COPPA Rule

On 31 May 2023, the Department of Justice (DoJ) filed a complaint on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against Amazon over alleged violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Rule (COPPA Rule). According to a complaint, Amazon is accused of impeding parents' ability to exercise their deletion rights as outlined in the COPPA Rule. It further states that Amazon retained sensitive voice recordings and geolocation data for prolonged periods, utilising them for its own purposes and thereby exposing the data to potential risks from unauthorised access. Furthermore, the complaint claims that Amazon assured its users, including parents, that they had the ability to delete voice recordings collected by its Alexa voice assistant and geolocation information gathered through the Alexa application. The FTC alleged that the company failed to comply with the statements by retaining certain data for an extended duration. Finally, the complaint alleges that Amazon unlawfully utilised the retained data to develop its Alexa algorithm. As part of the proposed federal court order, Amazon would be required to delete inactive child accounts, specific voice recordings, and geolocation information and pay a USD 25 million penalty. Amazon would be prohibited from using the data to train its algorithms. The implementation of the proposed order is contingent upon approval by the US District Court for the Western District of Washington.