Artist Arena ran fan websites such as www.RihannaNow.com, www.DemiLovatoFanClub.net, www.BeiberFever.com, and www.SelenaGomez.com
Not the kind of activity young entertainment stars Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Demi Lovato, and Selena Gomez want to be associated with but the company that ran their websites apparently didn’t have a problem with it.
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The Federal Trade Commission today settled charges with Artist Arena, operators of the stars’ websites that it violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by improperly collecting personal information from children under 13 without their parents’ consent. The settlement will impose a $1 million civil penalty on Artist Arena and make the company delete information collected in violation of COPPA.
According to the FTC, Artist Arena operated fan websites such as www.RihannaNow.com, www.DemiLovatoFanClub.net, www.BeiberFever.com, and www.SelenaGomez.com where children could join the stars’ fan club, create profiles and post to members’ walls.
The FTC said children also provided personal information to subscribe to fan newsletters. Artist Arena falsely claimed that it would not collect children’s personal information without prior parental consent and that it would not activate a child’s registration without parental consent.
According to the FTC’s complaint, Artist Arena collected children’s names, addresses, email addresses, birthdates, gender and other information without properly notifying parents or obtaining their consent. According to the complaint, Artist Arena knowingly registered over 25,000 children under age 13 and collected and maintained personal information from almost 75,000 additional children who began but did not complete the registration process.
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