Nickelodeon plans to resubmit "SpongeBob" game app to App Store

Cable channel Nickelodeon said its "SpongeBob Diner Dash" mobile game app will be resubmitted to Apple's App Store after concluding that it did not collect kids' names, email addresses and other personal information.

The popular kids-focused channel temporarily pulled the "SpongeBob" app from the App Store after a privacy watchdog group, the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD), charged that it violated children's online privacy laws in a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission. After investigating the claims, the Viacom-owned channel said it found that the app did not violate the Children's Online Privacy and Protection Act (COPPA). There is a prompt in the app where players can input their email address so they can receive a newsletter. The CDD took issue with the email prompt in its complaint, but Nickelodeon countered that it was "a template function from the developer that was never operational in this app, and no emails or personally identifiable information were collected." Nickelodeon also denied that it collected the names that players typed into the app. The company said the names were stored locally on the players' mobile phones and were never sent to any outside server. Nickelodeon also argued that the app's push notifications "are within the current COPPA guidelines" and informed players about new features or levels within the game.

Laura Moy, an attorney at Georgetown Law's Institute for Public Representation, said the app is collecting online contact information in order to send kids push notifications. "There is no question that push notifications come from the app operator's server over the Internet to the device," said Moy, who prepared the complaint on behalf of the CDD.