CCPA Enforcement Is Evolving. Privacy-First AdTech Is Not Optional Anymore

Recent enforcement actions by California’s consumer privacy regulator, under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) have made headlines after the California Attorney General announced a $1.4M settlement with a mobile game developer. According to the AG, the company had unclear data practices, collected information without proper consent, and shared data in ways users were not told about.

Several legal summaries explain that these issues weren’t about one-off mistakes, they were about how the company’s apps were designed and how data flowed behind the scenes, which regulators said did not meet the standards of the California Consumer Privacy Act. Experts note this case marks a “significant expansion of CCPA enforcement in the mobile gaming space.”

For Kidoz, none of this comes as a surprise. These enforcement themes: transparency, minimal data collection, and clear consent, are exactly why we built our network the way we did from the start. Kidoz has always operated on privacy-by-design, meaning our technology is built to work without personal data, without profiling, and without relying on hidden tracking. Based on what has now been reported publicly, the data practices highlighted in this case would not align with the requirements we apply when reviewing apps for inclusion in the Kidoz network.

As more companies face scrutiny and as expectations tighten, one message is becoming clearer for the entire industry: privacy cannot be something you fix later, it has to be part of the foundation. Kidoz has operated this way from day one, and it’s why we’re ready for the standards regulators are now enforcing more strictly.