Minecraft is a paid sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios, a Swedish game developer that Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) acquired in 2014 and now operates as a subsidiary. Multiplayer, cross-platform play, and social features run through Microsoft's Xbox network / Microsoft account system, and Microsoft's own privacy statement discloses that this system collects game progress, achievements, play statistics, chat and social-connection data, and user-generated content (screenshots, clips), plus limited data about children (name, birthdate, email, region) when a parent sets up a child's Xbox profile. Apple's App Store privacy label for the app discloses a 'Data Used to Track You' category (Purchases) and a 'Data Linked to You' category used for the developer's own advertising/marketing and analytics. In 2023 the FTC required Microsoft to pay $20 million and imposed a federal-court-enforceable order after finding Microsoft's Xbox account system illegally collected and retained children's personal information without verifiable parental consent and could share persistent identifiers with third-party game and app developers; the order specifically extends COPPA protections to the account/data-sharing infrastructure that Minecraft's own multiplayer and social features depend on. Ownership is traceable via Wikidata (citing a 2014 Polygon report of the acquisition closing) and Microsoft's SEC filings. As a paid, no-ad-supported game, Minecraft itself displays no in-app advertising, but the shared account backbone carries real privacy exposure, especially for its large child user base.