[ad_1]
Google's multi-million dollar payment comes after an investigation into alleged violations of the law on the protection of children's privacy. | Drew Angerer / Getty Images
According to one person, Google has agreed to pay between $ 150 million and $ 200 million to solve a FTC investigation on YouTube about alleged violations of the law on the protection of children's privacy. familiar with the subject.
The FTC voted 3-2 alongside the parties to approve the settlement, sending it to the Department of Justice as part of the review process, the person confirmed. Details regarding the other terms of the settlement were not immediately available.
History continues below
The settlement is the latest FTC initiative to crack down on privacy violations in Silicon Valley. Last month, Facebook spent $ 5 billion to solve the problem of a vast survey conducted by an organization on its data practices.
The industry has seen worse its fortune in Washington: President Donald Trump and his associates, Democratic presidential candidates and legislators from both parties have all criticized technology for its alleged failures in the fight against hate speech, extremism, invasion of privacy, alleged bias and wealth. other ailments. Many of these same critics have criticized the FTC over the penalties imposed on Facebook, questioning the impact of the $ 5 billion on the wealthy social media giant and the effectiveness of the conditions of regulation.
Privacy groups had complained to the FTC that YouTube had violated the Children's Online Privacy Act by collecting personal information about minors and using them to target advertisements without parental consent.
The transaction escapes the heaviest fine inflicted by the FTC so far for COPPA violations: US $ 5.7 million raised in February against operators of Musical.ly, the video application based in China that has become a real heavyweight since it's been renamed TikTok.
Nevertheless, Jeff Chester, the leader of one of the groups behind COPPA's complaint against YouTube, says the FTC should have gone much further.
"I think the message is that when the commission had a privacy law to enforce, it refused to do it, the penalty should have been at least half a billion dollars," said Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy. . "It's outrageous, which indicates that you can actually break a privacy law and escape largely without breaking and entering."
For his part, Marc Rotenberg, chairman of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, another complainant, said the key would be the conditions that the FTC imposes on YouTube under the settlement. "The key challenge for the FTC is whether it is able to restrict commercial practices that violate privacy," he said. "Imposing heavy fines does not solve this problem."
Bloomberg recently announced that YouTube is finalizing its plans to stop targeted advertising for videos targeted at minors. The Washington Post was the first to report on the party's online vote approving a "multi-million dollar" settlement last month.
Representatives David Cicilline (D-R.I.) and Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) Recently asked the FTC to require that videos for children be transferred from the main YouTube platform to YouTube Kids. This is the company's specialized service for child-friendly videos, which YouTube has just made available on the internet after offering it via mobile app and smart TVs in recent years.
Legislators also want the FTC to impose independent annual audits on YouTube to monitor compliance with the terms of the regulation and to prevent it from launching new services for children without outside control.
Google and FTC spokespersons declined to comment.
[ad_2]
Source link