Fan Sites
Settle Privacy Charges
Artist Arena, which operates fan websites for some of the biggest names in music, has been dinged $1 million by the Federal Trade Commission for illegally collecting information from children.
The FTC claims Artist Arena violated a children’s online privacy rule and obtained without parents’ permission details like names, email addresses, addresses and cell phone numbers of about 101,000 children 12 or younger, according to the New York Times.
Artist Arena ran four sites no longer in service: BieberFever.com, SelenaGomez.com, RihannaNow.com and DemiLovatoFanClub.com. The artists are not accused of any wrongdoing.
“These were fan sites that knew that a very substantial percentage of users were 12 or under,” David Vladeck, director of the FTC’s bureau of consumer protection, told the Times. “There is really no excuse for violations like these.”
The settlement requires ratification in court, an FTC spokeswoman reportedly said.
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