Charges against Google’s YouTube that this video streaming service had illegally not only collected information and data about children but had also shared the same with third parties, without taking permission from the parents, will be settled by the United States based tech giant against a fine of $170 million, said an announcement by the concerned US officials on Wednesday.
In relation to a case to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, a 1998 federal law, this is the largest settlement amount which has been agreed upon between the tech giant and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the New York state attorney general.
"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," he added.
The according to the settlement of the charges, YouTube would also have ot change the manner in which children’s content is handled by it.
"We will treat data from anyone watching children's content on YouTube as coming from a child, regardless of the age of the user," YouTube chief Susan Wojcicki said in a statement.
"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 personalized ads on this content entirely, and some features will no longer be available on this type of content, like comments and notifications."
While two Democrats on the panel of the FTC called for tougher penalties, the settlement was approved by a 3-2 vote of the FTC commissioners.
Democratic commissioner Rohit Chopra said that the deal "repeats many of the same mistakes from the flawed Facebook settlement: no individual accountability, insufficient remedies to address the company's financial incentives, and a fine that still allows the company to profit from its lawbreaking."
"The terms of the settlement were not even significant enough to make Google issue a warning
(Source:wwwtimesofindia.com)
In relation to a case to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, a 1998 federal law, this is the largest settlement amount which has been agreed upon between the tech giant and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the New York state attorney general.
"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," he added.
The according to the settlement of the charges, YouTube would also have ot change the manner in which children’s content is handled by it.
"We will treat data from anyone watching children's content on YouTube as coming from a child, regardless of the age of the user," YouTube chief Susan Wojcicki said in a statement.
"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 personalized ads on this content entirely, and some features will no longer be available on this type of content, like comments and notifications."
While two Democrats on the panel of the FTC called for tougher penalties, the settlement was approved by a 3-2 vote of the FTC commissioners.
Democratic commissioner Rohit Chopra said that the deal "repeats many of the same mistakes from the flawed Facebook settlement: no individual accountability, insufficient remedies to address the company's financial incentives, and a fine that still allows the company to profit from its lawbreaking."
"The terms of the settlement were not even significant enough to make Google issue a warning
(Source:wwwtimesofindia.com)
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