Microsoft to pay $20 million for violating children's privacy with Xbox accounts.

Microsoft will pay a $20 million settlement to the FTC over charges of violating COPPA by retaining personal information of kids for longer than it should have. The company will have to make changes, including informing parents of additional privacy protections for child accounts, requiring parental consent for child accounts made before 2021, and creating systems to delete data necessary to get parental consent. This is the latest FTC settlement with a video game company over COPPA violations, following Epic Games' $520 million settlement in December 2022. Microsoft's CVP of Xbox Player Services has apologized and committed to improving safety measures.