United States of America: Settlement in FTC lawsuit against WW for minor data collection including data and algorithm deletion

On 4 March 2022, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reached a settlement agreement with Weight Watchers (WW) in the lawsuit filed over the company's illegal collection and retention of personal data of children under 13 years old. According to the settlement order, WW has to pay a fine of USD 1.5 million, delete the personal data it has collected from children under 13 years old as well as erase any algorithms created on the basis of that data. The FTC filed the lawsuit against WW on 16 February 2022, alleging that WW has been marketing its application to children and collecting children's health data without obtaining parental consent. The FTC alleges that WW violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) which mandates entities collecting data of children younger than 13 years to notify and obtain consent from their parents. Furthermore, the FTC claims that WW stored the personal data of children indefinitely in violation of the COPPA, which allows storing data of children under 13 years old only for a period of one year.