The privacy laws of children
Google’s YouTube site was fined $170 Million to settle claims that children had their personal data collected without their parents’ consent.
Google was fined $136 Million by the Federal Trade Commission. The company will also pay $34 million more to resolve the allegations.
Although the good against Google is the largest, it’s still small compared to the $5 billion fine that the FTC imposed for privacy violations against Facebook this season.
YouTube was being investigated by the FTC for its handling of child information. Young children are protected by a law that requires parental consent before companies can discuss or accumulate their information.
FTC Chairman Joe Simons stated that YouTube had promoted its popularity among children to potential corporate customers. He stated that YouTube had not been compliant with privacy legislation regarding children’s privacy and “the firm refused” to admit that certain parts of its platform were directed to children. YouTube violated this law without explanation.
YouTube stated that it supports children aged 13 and over, but younger children can watch videos on YouTube channels. The website also contains animations and sing-alongs made for kids.
YouTube launched its app for children. The firm also launched a website version. It claims that it uses math problems to ensure that children aren’t signing in on their own, and need approval.
YouTube Kids does not target ads based on audience interests. The children’s version monitors information to promote videos about what kids are seeing. It also collects details about identifiable apparatus.
The FTC commissioners approved the settlement conditions together with Simons and the other Republicans, along with both Democrats, voting 3-2.
Rohit Chopra (Democrat) noted that this was the second time the bureau had sanctioned Google in 2011 for privacy violations. He stated, “This newest violation of privacy is very serious.”
Chopra stated in his dissent that illegally harvesting children’s data was “incredibly lucrative” for Google. He claimed that the Google settlement is similar to the one with Facebook. It has “no person obligation” and provides inadequate remedies to the organization to cover its financial incentives. Chopra also claims that the deal with Google allows the company to still make a profit from its lawbreaking.
Experts in research and advocacy for the protection online of children have circulated reports on the settlement of FTC Weekly with Google.
The middle for Digital Democracy known as the reported fine of $150 million to 200 million”woefully low,” terming Google’s breach of this regulation”egregious.”
Katharina Kopp, deputy manager of Google’s data collection unit, stated in a statement that “a small amount comparable to this would effectively profit Google for participating in illegally large-scale data collection without any respect for children’s safety.”
Google’s financing will be affected by the fine. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, made a $30.7 billion profit on $136.8 million revenue last year.
The government has increased scrutiny of major tech companies that were involved in data use and gathering over the past two years. Investigations are underway into a number of Silicon Valley companies to determine if there has been any suppression of competition.
YouTube has faced many child safety issues in the past year. One instance was comments that pedophiles had left family videos of children. This led to opinions that almost all videos featuring children should be turned off.
After discovering that it had illegally collected personal information about children, the FTC imposed a $5.7 million fine on Musical.ly (now TikTok).
Google is currently assisting the FTC in exposing the organization and also preventing it from being established. In 2012, Google was fined $22.5 Million for breaking up the settlement after it was discovered that Google had used tracking cookies in Apple’s Safari browser.
A federal courtroom in Washington must accept the FTC’s fine against YouTube.