The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) took action against a robot toy maker that sold its products in the United States via online retailers such as Amazon, for allegedly allowing a third-party from China to collect children’s data, the agency said in a Sept. 3 statement.
The company, Shenzen-based Apitor Technology Co., Ltd, develops and sells programmable robot toys targeting children aged 6 to 14, according to a Sept. 2 lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice at the District Court, Northern District of California. The app-enabled toys were promoted as educational devices for teaching children coding skills, the lawsuit said.
According to the lawsuit, on Amazon’s webpages for the toys, the company encourages consumers to download the free companion mobile app, called Apitor Kit, on their Android or iOS devices….