Google to Pay More Than $150 Million in YouTube Privacy Case (bloomberg.com) 8
YouTube has agreed to pay more than $150 million to resolve U.S. allegations that it violated children's privacy laws. Bloomberg reports: The settlement with the Federal Trade Commission resolves a probe into whether the video service broke a law that makes it illegal to collect information on children under 13 and disclose it to others without parental permission. A group of activists last year asked the FTC to look into the matter. The settlement with the world's largest video service represents the most significant U.S. enforcement action against a big technology company in the past five years over practices involving minors.
The FTC has been cracking down on firms that violate the 1998 Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). It fined the popular teen app now known as TikTok $5.7 million in February to resolve claims the video service failed to obtain parental consent before collecting names, email addresses and other information from children under 13. The YouTube settlement would be a record amount for a case involving COPPA. Some children's privacy advocates said the government hadn't gone far enough. "Once again, this FTC appears to have let a powerful company off the hook with a nominal fine for violating users' privacy online," Democratic U.S. Senator Ed Markey, a key figure behind the passage of COPPA, said in a statement. "We owe it to kids to come down hard on companies that infringe on children's' privacy and violate federal law."
The amount is "woefully low, considering the egregious nature of the violation, how much Google profited from violating the law, and given Google's size and revenue," said Katharina Kopp, deputy director of the Center for Digital Democracy, which helped lead the complaint against YouTube.
The FTC has been cracking down on firms that violate the 1998 Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). It fined the popular teen app now known as TikTok $5.7 million in February to resolve claims the video service failed to obtain parental consent before collecting names, email addresses and other information from children under 13. The YouTube settlement would be a record amount for a case involving COPPA. Some children's privacy advocates said the government hadn't gone far enough. "Once again, this FTC appears to have let a powerful company off the hook with a nominal fine for violating users' privacy online," Democratic U.S. Senator Ed Markey, a key figure behind the passage of COPPA, said in a statement. "We owe it to kids to come down hard on companies that infringe on children's' privacy and violate federal law."
The amount is "woefully low, considering the egregious nature of the violation, how much Google profited from violating the law, and given Google's size and revenue," said Katharina Kopp, deputy director of the Center for Digital Democracy, which helped lead the complaint against YouTube.
When there is more profit... (Score:2)
In breaking the law than obeying it!
Yep, nothing new under the sun.
Re: (Score:2)
Some activists have alleged law-breaking. Whether any such has actually taken place is not known...
They will not care (Score:2)
It is just money. They have heaps of that. Unless somebody is personally held to account by at least a suspended prison sentence, they will have forgotten about this a day after paying.
That fine is not a determent (Score:3)
Great (Score:2, Troll)
Re: (Score:2)