Game maker Epic Games (maker of the 'Fortnight' game, focused for kids and young adults) violated laws by using trickery to force users into unintended in game purchases of content. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) vs Epic Games comes to a 520-million-dollar settlement.
What has been detected.
Deceptively tricking people to buy their content. And collecting information about children under 13 without even asking for parental consent.
What do they do
Children's Online Privacy Protection Act Was breached by collecting the information of children. Allowing purchases to pile up without consent of the parent or card holder approval.
'If you click here, you get stuff (payment may or may not be required)' – Some kind of payment is always required.
How can this grab you.
Having a 'payment source on file' isn't great for security, or your wallet. Use one-time card numbers, given by your bank. These will be temporary numbers that will allow one transaction but should not allow auto-billing.
Ah, yes, the kids
While children may or may not know the implications of just purchasing every item, they see at the moment they see it, does not stop companies from targeting them. Exploiting children's limited experience and knowledge
Too good to be true.
After Microsoft was asked about this incident, they claimed it was fixed. However, they replied, that some files should not require consent to be placed in visitors' computers. 🤦
Don’t Forget...
They were only fined 60 million euros (about 64 million dollars). This is not very impactful to an almost 1.8 trillion-dollar corporation. For violating protection laws. Only after they were caught.