Google To Pay $170M Fine For Sharing YouTube Data From Kids
Written by Smooth FM on September 4, 2019
Google has agreed to pay $170 million to settle charges that it illegally collected and shared data from children on its YouTube video service, a deal critics said was too soft on the internet giant.
The settlement with the Federal Trade Commission and the New York state Attorney General is the largest amount in a case involving the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, a 1998 federal law, officials said.
Officials said YouTube violated the law that requires child-directed websites and online services to provide notice of their information practices and obtain parental consent prior to collecting personal information from children under 13.
The company marketed itself as a destination for children and benefitted by selling advertising to toymakers and others seeking to connect with young audiences, according to the FTC.
“YouTube touted its popularity with children to prospective corporate clients,” said FTC chairman Joe Simons.
“Yet when it came to complying with COPPA, the company refused to acknowledge that portions of its platform were clearly directed to kids. There’s no excuse for YouTube’s violations of the law.”
The settlement also calls for YouTube to change the way it handles children’s content.
“We will treat data from anyone watching children’s content on YouTube as coming from a child, regardless of the age of the user,” YouTube chief Susan Wojcicki said in a statement.
“This means that we will limit data collection and use on videos made for kids only to what is needed to support the operation of the service. We will also stop serving personalized ads on this content entirely, and some features will no longer be available on this type of content, like comments and notifications.”
