San Diego County sues AppLovin over alleged tracking of children

San Diego County sued mobile advertising company AppLovin on Monday, alleging it bypassed parental controls to collect sensitive data and serve adult-content ads in games played by children. The complaint was filed in San Diego Superior Court, Bloomberg reported. The county alleges AppLovin used device fingerprinting to track children for ad targeting despite tracking opt-outs and without parental consent. A screenshot in the complaint shows an ad for a sexualised AI chatbot in a puzzle game on an Android device configured for a six-year-old with parental controls enabled. AppLovin's advertiser policies say it does not knowingly collect children's personal information or serve them ads. Those policies assign advertisers responsibility for determining whether users are children.