NY AG Fines Software Company Saturn $650K for Privacy Failure
Software company Saturn Technologies, maker of the Saturn app for high school students, will pay a penalty of $650,000 for failing to protect users' privacy, New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) said on Friday. An investigation by the AG’s office found that while Saturn claimed only high school students from the same school could interact with each other on the app, the company did not take measures to verify the emails and ages of users, allowing anyone to join and access personal information found on the app.
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“The Saturn App helps students stay up to date with school-related events, sports, exams, and homework, but it failed to protect young users’ safety and privacy,” said James. “Saturn Technologies should have strictly verified users to ensure that they were actually high school students and should have made sure students were interacting with others in their high school, not strangers. With this settlement, Saturn Technologies will have to update its practices, better protect users, and keep its promises.”
Saturn Technologies must also provide users younger than 18 with enhanced privacy options, as well as require them to review privacy settings every six months. The company also must notify users of its verification changes, give them options to modify privacy settings and allow teachers to block personal identifiers in the app's schedule feature. Saturn didn't respond to a request for comment.