The Federal Trade Commission recently reached a settlement with WW International, the company formerly known as Weight Watchers. The FTC and Department of Justice accused WW of illegally collecting data from children as young as 8 without their parents’ permission through a weight loss app called Kurbo. That data included details such as what the kids ate and their exercise habits. In addition to fining WW $1.5 million, the FTC ordered the company to “destroy any algorithms derived from the data.” Kate Kaye is a staff writer covering artificial intelligence and data for the website Protocol. She explained what it actually means to “destroy” an algorithm.

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