The house the mouse built is facing a small spot of bother with news that a California woman has lodged a class action lawsuit claiming that The Walt Disney Co., Disney Electronic Content Inc. and partners are illegally spying on children through their range of apps.

San Francisco mom Amanda Rushing filed the class action suit in the U.S. District Court in Northern California late last week, claiming that Disney apps were gathering personal information and tracking online behavior of children in breach of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. The act that imposes certain requirements on operators of websites or online services directed at children under 13 years of age. Rushing specifically alleges that when she downloaded the “Disney Princess Palace Pets” game for her child, she didn’t know that personal information would be collected and used to market to her child elsewhere online and that she wasn’t asked to give her permission.

“These persistent identifiers allow SDK [software development kit] providers to detect a child’s activity across multiple apps and platforms on the internet, and across different devices, effectively providing a full chronology of the child’s actions across devices and apps,” attorney Michael Sobol wrote in the complaint. “Permitting technology companies to obtain persistent identifiers associated with children exposes them to the behavioral advertising as well as other privacy violations that COPPA was designed to prevent.”

Sobol argued that these practices are illegal under COPPA because information can be gathered only with consent from a parent and that no consent is asked by Disney apps. “Disney has failed to safeguard children’s personal information and ensure that third-parties’ collection of data from children is lawful,” Sobol added.

This apparently isn’t the first time Disney has breached COPPA. Investopedia noted that the company was forced to pay a $3 million civil penalty when it was found that its Playdom division had likewise breached the act for collecting personal information on kids back in 2011.

With a market cap of $168 billion and annual revenue of $16.9 billion, a lawsuit over privacy in apps would be nothing more than a minor inconvenience for the company. But in an age when awareness of data security is widespread, it’s not a good look for the company to be accused of exploiting children.

Photo: Pixabay