YouTube illegally violates privacy, new claim of $3. 2 billion

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A new lawsuit in a British court alleges that YouTube knowingly violated children’s privacy legislation in that country and that the damage exceeds 2. 5 billion pounds (about $3. 2 billion).

A generation investigator named Duncan McCann filed a lawsuit in uk High Court and acts as a plaintiff on behalf of the case, a similar but identical procedure to an action of American elegance. Foxglove, a British-generation advocacy group, backs this claim: YouTube fined $170 million for violating children’s privacy

“YouTube and its parent company Google forget about legislation designed for young people,” Foxglove wrote in a press release. “They know very well that millions of young people watch YouTube. They make money by illegally gathering knowledge about these young people by watching YouTube videos and then running highly specific ads designed to influence vulnerable young minds. “

A Google spokesperson told Bloomberg News that YouTube is not intended for users under the age of 13. “We present the YouTube Kids app as a destination for young people and we are working to protect young people and families more on YouTube,” the company said. .

This argument, however, did not save YouTube from hot water landing on minor users in this aspect of the Atlantic.

Last year, Google and the Federal Trade Commission reached a $170 million settlement for allegations of violations of the Online Child Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA.

COPPA, one of the few federal virtual privacy laws in the United States, imposes secure restrictions on the collection and use of non-public knowledge related to 12-year-olds and minors. According to the law, virtual websites, programs and platforms that collect knowledge from young people. Children under the age of thirteen are required to post a privacy policy and download parental consent to give parents the opportunity to share their children’s data with third parties, allow parents to review their children’s knowledge, and follow robust knowledge retention and storage policies.

You don’t want to sign in or store to watch up to your videos on YouTube, so there’s no age limit. Everyone can watch videos, adding young people. YouTube boasted to toy corporations Mattel and Hasbro that “YouTube voted unanimously as the likes online page for young people over 2 to 12” and “93% of tweens stop on YouTube to watch videos,” according to the FTC’s complaint. YouTube makes a decision that’s less difficult to treat the entire audience of youth content as if they were young.

While Google’s left hand boasted to toy brands about the number of young people watching its content, the company’s right hand said otherwise. According to an email received through the FTC, a Google worker wrote, “We have no users under the age of thirteen. “on YouTube and the platform/site is a general audience, so there is no channel/content aimed at young people and COPPA compliance is not required. “

The UK trial highlights the same claims YouTube made to Mattel and Hasbro and sharpened them with a UK government report in February that approximately 75% of British young people between the ages of five and 15 watch YouTube, as well as a portion of British preschoolers aged 3 to 4. . .

British law, such as COPPA, protects non-public data for young people under the age of 13. According to Foxglove, YouTube movements oppose the law:

We believe it is illegal because YouTube processes the knowledge of each and every child who uses the service, adding children under the age of thirteen, who merit this knowledge because they are paid through advertisers to position targeted ads on their YouTube website. do all this without the particular consent of young people’s parents. Under the GDPR and UK law, companies cannot process the knowledge of young people under the age of thirteen at all, without the particular consent of the parents. Parents disagree with youTube’s many tactics using young people’s knowledge.

The complaint filed on behalf of more than five million young people living in England and Wales and calls for reimbursement of between one hundred and five hundred euros for each child who has watched a video on YouTube since 2 May 2018, the day the EU’s general information is covered. regulation came into force.

“Google’s preference for deserving of young people’s attention has turned youTube corners into a technicolor nightmare,” said Cori Crider, director of Foxglove. “The genuine value of free “YouTube facilities” is that young people are addicted, influenced and exploited through Google This is already illegal for young people under the age of thirteen who use data.

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