U.S. Regulators Order Algorithm and Data Deletion in Settlement with Weight Watchers

March 4, 2022

The Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission reached a settlement with Weight Watchers for violations of the Child Online Privacy Protection Act resulting in fines and agreements that Weight Watchers would delete the improperly collected data and any algorithms that the data was used in conjunction with. As part of a 2021 order, the FTC required Everalbum to delete all algorithms created using data from their customers who did not consent to scraping of their photos for that use. EPIC has advocated for algorithmic accountability and petitioned the FTC to promulgate rules to safeguard consumers from AI harm in 2020. In December 2021, the FTC announced their intention to begin a broad rule making that would encompass algorithmic harm. 

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