YouTube to pay USD 170M fine after violating kids’ privacy law

Google will pay USD 170 million to settle allegations its YouTube video service collected personal data on children without their parents’ consent.

The company agreed to work with video creators to label material aimed at kids and said it will limit data collection when users view such videos, regardless of their age.

Some lawmakers and children’s advocacy groups, however, complained that the settlement terms aren’t strong enough to rein in a company whose parent, Alphabet, made a profit of USD 30.7 billion last year on revenue of USD 136.8 billion, mostly from targeted ads.

Google will pay USD 136 million to the Federal Trade Commission and USD 34 million to New York state, which had a similar investigation.