By Richard Chang, THE Journal
Hasbro, which makes the My Little Pony website, is among the companies that have illegally allowed children’s viewing habits to be tracked online. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has reached settlements with four major companies, blocking them from using tracking technology on their popular children’s websites. The settlements require that Viacom, Mattel and Jumpstart pay penalties totaling $835,000 following an investigation dubbed Operation Child Tracker, according to WABC-TV, the attorney general’s media site and other news sources. The two-year investigation found that the companies violated a 1998 federal law, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, that prohibits unauthorized collection of children’s personal information on websites aimed at users under 13. “What we found, frankly, was shocking,” Schneiderman said during a press conference this week. “Many of the sites that are home to our most popular TV shows and toys were littered with technology that can be used to track every move a child makes on that site.”
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