SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 19, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --
San Francisco City Attorney
Dennis Herrera has settled his civil
suit against MeetMe, Inc. (NASDAQ: MEET) with an agreement by the
mobile-focused social network to implement industry-leading
safeguards for users under the age of 18. Herrera filed a
dismissal of the case in San Francisco Superior Court this morning
shortly before releasing the settlement agreement with the
New Hope, Pa.-based MeetMe, which
he praised for "thoughtfully and responsibly" addressing the
practices his consumer protection action challenged.
Herrera's Feb. 3, 2014 complaint
alleged that innovations MeetMe employed to enable its users to
meet new people through their mobile devices violated California law for users between the ages of
13 and 17. Although MeetMe prohibits children under the age
of 13 from using its service, Herrera contended that MeetMe
improperly relied on the legally-invalid consent of minor teens to
publish their photographs and personal information in tandem with
their real-time locations. The practices posed risks to
minors' safety and impinged on their privacy rights in violation of
California law, according to the
complaint, and they were inadequately explained to users by
MeetMe's privacy policy and terms of service.
But Herrera hailed as "groundbreaking" revisions to which MeetMe
agreed in the settlement announced today, which will dramatically
enhance privacy and safety protections for minors in the burgeoning
realm of location-based networking on mobile devices.
"MeetMe showed leadership to resolve this litigation that's
worthy of its status as a market leader," Herrera said.
"Company officials thoughtfully and responsibly considered the
violations we alleged under California law, and ultimately aspired to
remedies even beyond those we sought. Our settlement includes
groundbreaking steps to protect the safety and privacy of minor
teenagers, just as we'd hoped. But MeetMe deserves credit for
also seeing the opportunity to expand and better explain privacy
protections for the benefit of all of its users, of all ages.
It's an approach that will serve consumers well, and hopefully also
set an industry standard for all social networks at a time when
they are increasingly accessed through mobile devices."
Under terms of the settlement agreement, MeetMe will not
identify locations of minor teens more specifically than their city
and state, and will not display their proximity to others users
more narrowly than "within one mile." And even this limited
location sharing for minor teens will now default to "off."
The settlement agreement contemplates that the product
changes will be implemented within 90 days.
MeetMe agreed to significantly streamline and simplify its
privacy policy and terms of service, addressing an issue Herrera
raised in his complaint that a standardized readability analysis
found key privacy content inappropriate for non-college
graduates. MeetMe's revised policy is now written at a ninth
grade reading level, according to the same analysis, which is
appropriate for comprehension by minors between the ages of 13 and
17. The social network also simplified users' access to
privacy settings by placing them on a single page or screen, and
MeetMe users of all ages will additionally benefit from regular
"privacy check-up" notices detailed in the agreement, which will
routinely apprise users of their privacy settings and explain how
to modify them.
Financial terms of agreement include a one-time payment by
MeetMe to the City Attorney's Office of $200,000 to resolve all claims for damages,
attorneys' fees or other costs. Because the case alleged
violations of California's Unfair
Competition Law, Herrera's litigation against MeetMe was funded
almost exclusively by prior civil recoveries won by his office,
rather than taxpayer dollars. State voters amended that law
in 2004 to require that civil penalties recovered by public
prosecutors be used exclusively to enforce consumer protection
laws.
The case is: People of the State of
California ex rel. Dennis
Herrera v. MeetMe, Inc. et al. (San Francisco Superior
Court Case No. 537126, filed Feb. 3,
2014). Full documentation on the settlement agreement
is available on the San Francisco
City Attorney's Office's website at the following URL:
http://www.sfcityattorney.org/.
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SOURCE City Attorney of San
Francisco