OpenX Ad Exchange Settles With FTC Over Alleged COPPA And Other Violations

OpenX Technologies recently agreed to pay $2 million to settle FTC allegations that the advertising platform violated the FTC Act and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. OpenX runs a programmatic ad exchange, running a bidding platform that auctions online ad space. The company contracts with publishers who have open ad space as well as ad networks with inventories of ads they are seeking to publish online.

According to the FTC, while OpenX indicated in its privacy policy that users could opt out of having location information collected or used by “using the location service controls in your mobile device's setting” in fact, it continued to collect and use location information from those who had followed the opt-out process. The FTC argued this was deceptive in violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act.