Google and the company-own video platform YouTube are paying $ 170 million for unlawfully collecting personal information from children. This was announced by the US antitrust authority FTC on Wednesday. The payment is therefore part of a settlement between the companies on the one hand and FTC and the New York Attorney General on the other.
The two Internet companies are accused of having collected information about users of YouTube children's channels with the help of so-called cookies, without the prior permission of their parents. The aim was therefore to be able to disseminate targeted advertising on the basis of the data and thus make money.
According to the authorities, Google and YouTube violated a law on the protection of the privacy of children on the Internet from 1998, called COPPA. This prohibits collecting data from children under the age of 13. In 2013, the law was amended to add that this rule also applies to cookies.
New York Attorney General Letitia James accused Google and YouTube of abusing power. 136 of the $ 170 million are now to go to the FTC, it is said: Such a high penalty in a COPPA case so far never fell due.
For a similar reason to YouTube earlier this year, TikTok had already paid a million fine. At that time, the service agreed with the FTC on a payment of $ 5.7 million.
