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The Walt Disney Company has agreed to pay a $3 million settlement stemming from charges that online virtual worlds once operated by Playdom, now a Disney subsidiary, violated the Federal Trade Commission rules designed to protect the online privacy of children under age 13. According to the FTC, several Playdom sites that were aimed at young audiences illegally collected and then disclosed personal data in violation of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). These sites included Pony Stars, 2 Moons, 9 Dragons, Age of Lore, and My DIva Doll. The FTC complaint says that some 821,000 children registered with Pony Stars between 2006 and 2009 and another 403,000 signed up for Playdom's other online virtual worlds. These sites collected children's names, ages, and email addresses and allowed them to post that personal information publicly online -- including their real names and locations. The FTC charged that the company failed to get parents' consent before collecting or disclosing this information. Sponsor The sites in question were created by Acclaim Games, which were acquired by Playdom in May 2010. Playdom, in turn, was acquired by Disney in August 2010, and by that time many of the games were shut down or transferred to offshore operators. A Disney spokesperson said in a statement that it was "pleased that Playdom and the FTC have now resolved this matter amicably." The announcement of the settlement coincides with the introduction of legislation by Representatives Joe Barton (R-Texas) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.) that will update online protections for children. Indeed, the legislation that governs children's online privacy, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, was first passed in 1998. 1998 - that's eons ago in Internet years. A world pre-Playdom, pre-Facebook, and even pre-Google. (Well, the search engine was actually incorporated that year.) The updated COPPA legistation, called the "Do Not Track Kids Online Act," would require online companies to explain the types of data that's collected as well as how it is to be used or disclosed. It would also update language to include mobile applications, and it would ban companies from using children and teens' personal data for targeted advertising. The federal government is examining a number of new measures to protect consumers' privacy online, but no surprise, particular attention is being paid to the children's privacy online - not just on those sites like Disney's aimed at directly at those under 13, but at others such as Facebook that, despite Terms of Service rules that dictate otherwise, are full of children. Discuss

Disney To Pay $3 Million Settlement For Violating Children's Online Privacy

It's been more than two decades since Microsoft's now-ubiquitous suite of office productivity software was released. Although we've seen numerous free or low-cost alternatives arrive on the scene since then - OpenOffice.org, Google Docs and Zoho Docs to name a few - Microsoft Office still remains overwhelmingly dominant in this space. Forrester reported two years ago that 80% of companies were running some version of Office, and this number hasn't budged much. In a recent report, Forrester noted that all respondents were running Office, with 74% of IT departments saying they supported Microsoft Office 2003 or earlier. By contrast, only 8% said they utilize Google Docs and 1% were on Zoho Docs. Sponsor With cheaper alternatives available, what's holding companies back from moving away from Microsoft's offering? For IT decision makers, the desire to rely less on Microsoft is simply not a very influential factor, as only 20% cited it as a primary driver. Much more important to the process of selecting this type of software is worker productivity. A majority (68%) of respondents said improving productivity was the main influence driving the adoption of solutions like Office. As easy as it may sometimes be to dislike Office, it's hard to deny that it has a pretty robust feature set. For as good as Web-based tools like Google Docs are, they only do a portion of what Office does. And while they accomplish the majority of commonly-needed tasks quite well and benefit from being based in the cloud, this is still not enough for many businesses. Forrester predicts that as the competition continues to "close the functionality gap," we should expect to see greater adoption of alternative suites like Google Docs. Meanwhile, forseeing this threat, Microsoft continues to expand its own Web-based offerings, with Office 365 recently going into public beta. Eagerness to provide an office suite alternative also varies depending on the type of worker. A Web-based solution would be especially ideal for workers who travel extensively, such as sales reps, for example. IT decision makers said they'd be more likely to offer a solution to workers who edit documents only occasionally, as opposed to those whose jobs revolve more heavily around doing so. The second most important factor cited by larger companies is the desire to cut costs. Obviously, for small businesses and nonprofits this is a much more significant consideration and as a result those organizations tend to be more likely to use Office alternatives. Does your company use Microsoft Office or one of its competitors? What your thoughts? Let us know in the comments. Discuss

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