The developer of the online game Genshin Impact agreed to pay $20 million to settle allegations of violating data privacy of children and duping players into spending money on in-game loot boxes.
The settlement comes as part of a complaint filed against Singapore-based Cognosphere Pte. Ltd and its California subsidiary Cognosphere LLC, which does business in the United States as HoYoverse. The defendants allegedly “actively marketed” the free-to-download game Genshin Impact to children and collected their private info, thus violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA), said a Jan. 17 statement from the FTC.
The FTC alleged that the company was aware that children under 13 were using its service and “continued to collect personal information from children and use it without obtaining parental consent or complying with other COPPA requirements”…