This archive report was first published on 5 September 2019.
On September 5, 2019, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and New York's Attorney General announced that Google would pay a record Sh17 billion (170 million dollars) fine for violating children's privacy on YouTube.
According to regulators, YouTube had illegally gathered children's data, including identification codes used to track web browsing over time, without their parents' consent.
YouTube had also marketed itself to advertisers as a top destination for young children and told some advertising firms that they did not have to comply with the children's privacy law because YouTube did not have viewers under 13.
As a result, YouTube made millions of dollars by using information harvested from children to target them with advertisements.
Under the settlement, YouTube agreed to create a system that asks video channel owners to identify the children's content they post so that targeted ads are not placed in such videos.
YouTube must also obtain consent from parents before collecting or sharing personal details like a child's name or photos, regulators said.
The move is the latest enforcement action taken by regulators in the United States against technology companies for violating users' privacy.
Two Republican commissioners, Joseph J. Simons and Christine S. Wilson, said in a statement that the settlement 'achieves a significant victory for the millions of parents whose children watch child-directed content on YouTube.'
However, critics denounced the agreement, dismissing the fine as paltry and the required changes as inadequate for protecting children's privacy.
