Google and YouTube fined $170 million for failure to protect children's personal data

The U.S. court recently condemned US digital giant Google and its entertainment subsidiary YouTube.

They will have to pay the US$170 million fine in the United States. A very large sum, so we ask why? What were the reasons for such a conviction?

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In this case, the digital giant is accused along with its subsidiary of publishing video content featuring children. The problem is that these videos were inappropriate for the image they conveyed on the infant class. It was also mentioned that they collected data on his videos published on the various platforms. Data generated by children.

this case was made public following a press release by the consumer protection. But the most amazing thing is that this sum was due to an out-of-court settlement proposed by the U.S. firm. this agreement to be validated must be confirmed by the Ministry of Justice and this will then be the most important agreement in a U.S. protection of personal data and privacy directly involving children.

and this happened following a set of complaints filed by 23 organisations non-governmental organizations working in the field of advocacy use of digital tools on April 18, 2018. These organizations accused YouTube to collect personal information related to minors without request the consent of their parents. The information it is discussed here are usually the location of underage users, type of device they used, and often phone numbers, and this advertising purposes.

at the head of the consumer protection agency, Joseph Simons said: "YouTube has touted its popularity among children among companies that were customers forward-looking statements (…) However, when it came to complying with the law, the company refused to acknowledge that part of its platform was clearly aimed at children. There is no excuse for the way in which YouTube broke the law. ».

According to agreement that has been reached between Google and the 170 million claimed from Google 136 million will go to Agency. The other $34 million will have to go to the Department of Justice.

by Elsewhere, some members of the Consumer Protection Agency In particular, Democratic members disagree with the agreement reached with It's Google. Indeed, they feel that this agreement is not sufficiently seriousness of what the American giant is accused of. Google, for its part, is trying to defend itself by stating that: "We will process the data of those who watch children's programs on YouTube as if they came from a regardless of the age of the viewer. ».

However, there are questions about the scope of this sanction. Indeed, a simple fine can guarantee that minors can have access to certain platforms without running the risk of being hunted down and monetized as merchandise.

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