Nick Targeted in Kids' Privacy Complaint for SpongeBob App

Privacy group keeps up pressure on FTC

Hoping to pressure the Federal Trade Commission to step up its enforcement of kids' privacy laws, the Center for Digital Democracy filed a complaint against Nickelodeon and PlayFirst's SpongeBob Diner Dash app game.

In the game, children help SpongeBob seat, serve and please customers in five Bikini Bottom restaurants run by the greedy Mr. Krabs.

The complaint filed Monday claims that not only is the privacy disclosure in the Apple iTunes store deceptive but also that the app asks children to provide personal information, including their full name, email address and other online identifying information, without obtaining parental permission as required by the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (Coppa).

"Nickelodeon tells parents that it complies with the law protecting children's privacy when it does not," said Laura Moy, an attorney with Georgetown Law's Institute for Public Representations, which prepared the complaint for the CDD.

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