US sues robot toy maker for exposing children's data to Chinese devs

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the agency has sued Apitor Technology over claims it allowed a Chinese third party to collect children’s geolocation data without parental knowledge or consent. The complaint, filed after a notification from the Federal Trade Commission, alleges Apitor violated COPPA by failing to notify parents or obtain consent before gathering location information from users’ children.

The investigation argues that the app connects to JPush, a third‑party SDK, and has been used since at least 2022 to collect precise location data for thousands of children for purposes including targeted advertising.

The proposed settlement would require Apitor to ensure any third‑party software it uses complies with COPPA, to pay a $500,000 penalty (held due to the company’s finances, with full payment if finances prove dishonest), and to implement measures such as notifying parents, obtaining consent, deleting collected data, and retaining data only as necessary. The FTC also announced that Disney will pay a $10 million civil penalty to settle claims it enabled collection of kids’ data on YouTube by mislabeling videos.