The Federal Trade Commission has filed a civil action against the Santa Monica-based operator of the Sendit anonymous messaging app, alleging in federal court that the company unlawfully collected personal data from children and “tricked” users into purchasing paid subscriptions, according to court papers obtained Tuesday.
The complaint, filed Monday in L.A. federal court, contends that Iconic Hearts Holdings Inc. and its chief executive, Hunter Rice, violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.
The rule requires operators of websites, apps and other online services that have knowledge they are collecting personal information from children under 13 to notify parents about what information is being gathered and to obtain parental consent.
The FTC complaint, filed by the U.S. Justice Department, also alleges that Iconic Hearts made misrepresentations to users to push them to purchase premium subscriptions, unfairly used fake messages to trick child and teen users into purchasing premium subscriptions and failed to clearly disclose the terms of its subscription plans.
“Sendit’s operator and CEO were well aware that many of its users were under the age of 13 and still failed to comply with COPPA,” Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement. “At the same time, they manipulated many users, including children, into signing up for their weekly subscription service by sending fake messages and promising to reveal the identity of message senders but failing to deliver.”
A message from City News Service seeking comment from Iconic Hearts was not immediately answered Tuesday.
The complaint alleged that Iconic Hearts knew that numerous Sendit users were under the age of 13 but failed to comply with the COPPA rule. For example, in 2022, more than 116,000 users reported their age as under 13 while using Sendit, according to the complaint.
The FTC contends that Iconic Hearts also received complaints from parents who indicated that their children were under 13. Even though it was aware that many users were under 13, Iconic Hearts failed to notify parents that it collected personal information from children, including their phone numbers, birthdates, photos and usernames for Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok and other accounts, and did not obtain parents’ verifiable consent to such data collection.
The complaint also alleged that Iconic Hearts and Rice deceived Sendit’s users, many of whom were children and teens, into purchasing its premium Diamond Membership by falsely promising to reveal the senders of anonymous messages.