Google, which owns YouTube, has agreed to pay $30 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that said the site illegally collected personal information from kids without their parents’ permission.
The lawsuit was about claims that YouTube kept track of what people did online while they were watching kids’ shows. Cookies were used to track this, and they collected IP addresses and unique identifiers from devices.
The lawsuit said that this practice was a clear violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), a federal law that says websites can’t collect personal information from kids under 13 without getting permission from their parents first.
This new settlement is not the same as a previous case that set a record. In 2019, Google paid $170 million to settle charges from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and New York State over the same main issue: breaking children’s privacy laws. YouTube had to make big changes to its platform because of that settlement.
YouTube now treats all content aimed at kids differently because of the 2019 action. The platform now turns off features like personalized ads, comments, and notifications on videos that are marked as “made for kids.” It also makes it harder to collect data on those videos.
The $30 million from this most recent class-action lawsuit will go to the millions of people in the US who let their kids watch YouTube videos during a certain time.
People who meet the requirements and file a claim will be able to get some of the settlement money. While the exact amount per person is not yet known, it is intended to provide some restitution for the alleged unauthorized data collection.
This settlement doesn’t mean that Google is guilty, but it does show how big tech companies are still having trouble with the law and ethics when it comes to user privacy, especially when it comes to young and vulnerable users.
It reminds us of the strict rules that are in place to keep kids safe online and the big fines that companies can face if they don’t follow them.
