The statement requires parental consent for account creation by children under 13 (or a higher age where required by local law), prohibits personalized advertising to users identified as under 18, and limits data collection from children to what is necessary for the product. Parents can revoke consent and access or delete child data through the privacy dashboard.
This analysis describes what Microsoft's agreement states, permits, or reserves. It does not constitute a legal determination about enforceability. Regulatory applicability and practical outcomes may vary by jurisdiction, enforcement context, and individual circumstances. Read our methodology
This provision establishes the conditions under which children's accounts may be created and the data protections applied to users under 18, including a blanket prohibition on personalized advertising to users identified as minors based on their Microsoft account birthdate. Parent and guardian controls are available through the Microsoft Family Safety tools and privacy dashboard.
The updated privacy statement removes the previous detailed list of third-party sources from which Microsoft obtains personal data, including data brokers, public social media posts, location service providers, co-branded partners, and developers. Under the revised language, Microsoft describes obtaining data from 'Microsoft affiliates, subsidiaries, and third parties' without specifying the categories or types of third parties as explicitly as before. The company states it has reorganized the document for greater clarity and accessibility, but the operational effect is that users receive less specific disclosure about where their data originates from outside Microsoft.
View change record →The updated policy establishes additional grounds on which Microsoft may retain personal data. While the prior version tied retention to specific user expectations and available deletion controls, the revised language authorizes retention for 'operating our business, meeting our contractual and legal obligations, improving and developing our products and services, protecting the safety and security of our systems and customers, and resolving disputes.' This expands the stated purposes beyond transaction fulfillment and legal compliance. The updated policy directs users to product-specific documentation for retention details rather than providing explicit deletion procedures and timelines in the privacy statement itself.
View change record →The updated policy now grounds data retention in five broad business purposes: operating the business, meeting contractual and legal obligations, improving and developing products and services, protecting system and customer safety, and resolving disputes. Previously, the policy articulated specific criteria for determining retention periods, including customer expectations for retention until manual deletion, availability of automated deletion controls, and data sensitivity. The revised language removes these granular criteria and instead requires users to consult individual product documentation to understand when their specific data will be deleted. This shifts the burden of finding retention timelines from the main policy statement to separate product-specific documents.
View change record →Under this provision, children under 13 require verifiable parental consent to create a Microsoft account, and Microsoft commits not to deliver personalized advertising to users whose account identifies them as under 18. Parents can view, manage, and delete child data via the Microsoft Privacy Dashboard and request account deletion through the close your account form.
Cross-platform context
See how other platforms handle Children's Data and Parental Consent Framework and similar clauses.
Compare across platforms →"When a child is under 13-or a higher age if required in their region-the child will need consent from their parent or guardian to create a Microsoft account. Parents can change or revoke consent at any time. For users under the age of 13 or as specified by law in their jurisdiction, certain Microsoft products and services will either block users under that age or require parental or guardian consent or authorization before use, including when creating an account. We will not knowingly ask children under the age of consent to provide more data than is necessary to provide the product. As mentioned in the Advertising section, we do not deliver personalized advertising to children whose birthdate in their Microsoft account identifies them as under 18 years of age.Excerpt from Microsoft's Privacy Statement (Legacy)
(1) REGULATORY LANDSCAPE: This provision implicates COPPA (U.S.), which requires verifiable parental consent for collection of personal data from children under 13, and is enforced by the FTC.
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This provision establishes the conditions under which children's accounts may be created and the data protections applied to users under 18, including a blanket prohibition on personalized advertising to users identified as minors based on their Microsoft account birthdate. Parent and guardian controls are available through the Microsoft Family Safety tools and privacy dashboard.
Under this provision, children under 13 require verifiable parental consent to create a Microsoft account, and Microsoft commits not to deliver personalized advertising to users whose account identifies them as under 18. Parents can view, manage, and delete child data via the Microsoft Privacy Dashboard and request account deletion through the close your account form.
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