Florida sues Roku for illegally selling children’s data, including precise geolocation

Florida on Tuesday sued the smart television company Roku for collecting and selling children’s sensitive data, including information showing precise geolocation, without notice and parental consent.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier alleges that Roku violated Florida privacy and consumer protection laws by collecting and sharing the information, including by selling it to the data broker Kochava, which is being sued by the Federal Trade Commission for its geolocation data sales practices. 

By selling the personal data — which included children’s viewing habits and voice recordings, in combination with precise geolocation data — Roku is allowing ostensibly deidentified data to be linked to specific individuals, Uthmeier said. In addition to selling the data to brokers, Roku also peddles it to advertisers, according to the complaint.

The company’s technology is used by about half of American households and reached 145 million people as of 2024, the attorney general said in a press release.

Roku also broke Florida law by deceiving consumers about the “effectiveness of its privacy controls and opt-out tools,” they said.

Roku illegally processes children’s data “even when a user waves a flag signaling to Roku that he or she is a child” by signing up for kids-oriented programming and features, according to the complaint. 

Four of the five most searched programs on Roku in 2024 were children’s entertainment, the state said, and Roku did nothing to determine if users whose data it sold were children.

A spokesperson for Roku did not immediately respond to a request for comment.