Google to pay USD 170 mn fine for sharing YouTube kids data

Google agreed to pay a USD 170 million fine to settle charges that it illegally collected and shared data from children on its YouTube video service without consent of parents, US officials announced Wednesday.

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.

"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."
"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 personalised ads on this content entirely, and some features will no longer be available on this type of content, like comments and notifications."