WW INTERNATIONAL INC
WW
Consumer Discretionary
2
exclusion reasons
2 themes
This page is part of our public exclusion list — a transparency tool that shows which companies we screen out and why. It is not investment advice, and it is not an accusation. But it is subject to change as our understanding of the facts evolves.
WW International (formerly Weight Watchers) and its subsidiary Kurbo Inc. agreed to a $1.5 million civil penalty to settle FTC charges of violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The company collected personal data from children as young as 8 through the Kurbo weight loss app, using a deceptive age gate that encouraged children to claim they were 13 or older. The company failed to provide adequate parental notice and retained children's data indefinitely. The FTC settlement required deletion of all illegally collected data and destruction of algorithms trained on that data — a first in COPPA enforcement history.
WW International, Inc., the company operating the WeightWatchers program, derives revenue from promoting and selling weight loss plans that include and are built around the consumption of animal products. The company's core business model involves guiding members through food tracking and point systems that explicitly incorporate meat, dairy, and eggs as dietary staples.
Cruelty Free Investors lists WW International under its "Meat/Dairy/Eggs" category for companies that exploit animals. The company's commercial interest in animal agriculture is further evidenced by its engagement with scientific advisors who research consumer motivations for reducing meat consumption due to animal welfare concerns. This indicates the company actively monitors, and seeks to influence, dietary choices involving animal products as part of its commercial strategy.
Related Issues
Animal Rights
We don't invest in companies that treat animals as commodities — factory farming, animal testing, exotic skins, entertainment. This isn't a peripheral screen. It's the original premise of the firm: avoiding preventable harm to living things requires taking animal consciousness seriously, not assuming it away.
Surveillance Capitalism
Surveillance capitalism is extraction without consent — behavioral data harvested from people whose agreement was buried in terms they couldn't negotiate and can't revoke. We exclude companies whose revenue depends on this, and hold a high bar for any tech company where surveillance is a meaningful input. Until users can control, audit, and delete their data, this stays a core exclusion.
Research Sources
2 organizations
Related Exclusions
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A digest of changes to our exclusion list — new additions, removals, and the evidence behind them. We review the list continuously as new evidence surfaces.
Companies appear on our exclusion list based on our investment judgment — not because they've done anything illegal. This is a difference of values and opinion, not an accusation of wrongdoing. Exclusion does not constitute a recommendation against investing in any company, and absence from the list does not constitute a recommendation to invest.
This information is provided for educational and transparency purposes only and should not be relied upon as investment advice. Data is drawn from independent watchdogs, NGOs, government registries, and Ethical Capital's ongoing research — see Research Sources for the full list.
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