State Suits Link Roku with Data Brokers, Lawyers Observe
Florida and Michigan focused recent privacy complaints against Roku on the streaming box maker's partnerships with data brokers, Holland & Knight lawyers noted in a blog post Friday.
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Michigan sued Roku in April (see 2504290068). Meanwhile, Florida’s lawsuit earlier this month was its first enforcement action under the Florida Digital Bill of Rights (see 2510140024). Because the Florida law has narrow applications, the enforcement action surprised some privacy experts (see 2510200044).
The streaming platform's partnership with data broker Kochava is “alleged to provide Roku advertisers access to sensitive data, including ethnicity and date of birth, about individuals to whom advertisements are delivered,” the lawyers said in the blog. Kochava and other data brokers “allegedly enable tracking of children's physical movements and linking household Roku accounts to individual mobile devices,” they said. The lawyers also noted that Kochava is defending an FTC action “for improper disclosure of geolocation data.”
The lawyers highlighted that both states contend Roku is the dominant streaming platform in the U.S., and “offers content directed to children in a number of ways,” like the Kids & Family section on The Roku Channel.
Florida claims Roku "willful[ly] disregard[s]" that children are on its platform, despite marketing children's content, partnering with child-directed channels and using child-targeting features such as cartoon screensavers and age-based content categories.
Roku plans to fight the states' complaints, which it says are inaccurate, in court (see 2510160003 and 2507150047). However, the lawyers blogged that “the fine amount could be significant” if Roku violated the Florida law, since violations involving children can have penalties up to $150,000 per violation.